Tallulah Jean Papaellinas
Buffalo
Dog Bite Protection Spell
Untitled (Show Text)
Dinner

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I’m lying across the bed, gently pawing and twisting at its body. It’s too bright in your room, blue-white light shaking in the wind.  My neck is cricked, head cocked back to look at you, mouth gesturing to go. You cast a shadow down onto me. My moth figure casts a shadow onto you.

I’m a baked ornament, but not even really ready.

Wet eyes clinging to the play of shadow-dancers against the wall, I’m ectopic here. I’m knowing something is there, knowing you are there, knowing you are there without seeing you. Stomach aches, warm lather at the back of my mouth again, being increasingly lost, falling, falling, falling, figuring it out, ectopic. I’ve dissolved myself into the faces, bodies, the things about people I do and don’t like.

 I reach out to you, fly towards you, drag the backs of my hands against the walls, tracing out towards the light switch. Distracted, you blink heavily, and I’m always comforted to remember what about you I don’t like. I get up to go. I’m wrapped up now, bound up: older sister, brother, mum, friend. I’m dedicated to the game, tantric, united, light paving the way home. 
Your eyes were focused somewhere far away,
 but I could tell you were watching me, 
watching through me, 
to something bigger underneath. 

Wondering what type of animal I am, 
I pull myself up through you, 
through the light in your room, 
and open the door.





Show text for:
“My Moth Figure Casts a Shadow on You”
TCB Art Inc., 13 Dec 2025 - 18 Jan 2026
With works from Alexandra Gowing, Alula McGlashan-Rabik, Bonnie Thorn, Fiona Shewan, Isabel Trufas, & Stacey Collee. 
Curated by Madeleine Minack & Viva Hall