The temple of Bunny Girl Fairies

The temple of Bunny Girl Fairies

IT'S no wonder that Paganism is the fastest growing religion in the UK. City dwellers brought up beside electricity pylons, dilapidated warehouses and gas containers probably seek another world.
Julie Goldsmith’s 10-inch ­figurine deities made from “bits of hat” purchased in Portobello Market, were inspired by the fetishes of the native American Zuni tribe.

Goldsmith said the impetus to make her doll-like sculptures, currently perching in the crevices of an old disused water tower, also came from her childhood belief in magic.

She lives in west ­London and was brought up in industrial Croydon where she used to play on a site she liked to call Gas Lane. Resembling a children’s fairytale, the exhibition also features life-sized silhouettes.
The deities in this urban ­atheist’s temple, which include Bunny Girl Fairies and Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, make ­socio-cultural observations of modern-day trends.

Goldsmith said: “The Bunny Girl is there in our consciousness. It’s both a sex symbol and sophisticated so I wanted to explore that. It shows how we need faith and ritual in our lives.”