Fountas is best known for her series Dreamchild (2002–2005) and Wonderland (2005–2007), where she dressed her own daughter, Olympia, as Lewis Carroll’s Alice. But unlike the saccharine Disney version, Fountas’s Wonderland was eerie, silent, and profound. Olympia, with her solemn, knowing gaze, did not act the part of a lost girl. Instead, she inhabited the landscape—the dark Australian bush, the empty swimming pools, the Victorian-era costumes—as if she were a ghost haunting a forgotten memory.
It was a raw, unflinching look at mortality. Yet, consistent with her entire oeuvre, it avoided sentimentality. A dress hanging from a tree is not just sad; it is a question mark. Where has the child gone? Where does the self go after the body fades? polixeni fountas