Sycorax is an installation of drawings that summons the absent and silenced figure of Sycorax, the witch and mother of Caliban, characters from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Kept offstage and described only through the voices of others, Sycorax emerges here as body, gesture, and territory—a presence evoked through drawing, restoring to her both agency and memory.
The drawings that make up Sycorax draw inspiration from medieval engravings and woodcuts depicting the witch hunts that took place across Europe. Appropriating the stark aesthetic of these images—characterized by strong contrasts, dramatized bodies, and moralizing symbolism—the work revisits a visual imaginary that was historically used to legitimize the persecution and control of women’s bodies.
Alice Geirinhas (Évora, 1964) is a Portuguese visual artist, illustrator, and educator based in Lisbon, known for her work in drawing, comics, and installation. Her practice frequently engages with themes of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. Holding degrees in Sculpture and Contemporary Art, she has been teaching at the University of Coimbra and exhibiting regularly since the 1980s.
She holds a BA in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (FBAUL), an MA in Contemporary Artistic Practices from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP), and a PhD in Contemporary Art from the College of Arts at the University of Coimbra.
Her work is represented in several public and private collections, including the PLMJ Foundation Collection and the António Cachola Collection.
