Started in 2023 for her participation in the Kunsthalle Zürich Biennial, this work is part of Alexandra Metcalf’s 'Crazy Jane' series, where the artist animates pairs of scissors by depicting them as floating on scenic yet ominous and barren landscapes. Pairs of scissors, household items conventionally associated with domesticity and crafts, are imbued with dread, functioning as symbols of both femininity and violence. The title of the work references the Victorian-era English painter Richard Dadd’s 1855 watercolor 'Sketch for an Idea of Crazy Jane', completed by the artist while a patient at Bethlem Royal Hospital. Here, the tragic outcast figure of Jane, with whom Dadd felt an affinity, is personified by the scissors. Applied to the canvas in the method of frottage, the painting demonstrates both a deep understanding of methods of image-making rooted in antiquated tradition and a sensitivity towards the pathos of the subject.