We are finally in production from a room at the top of a tower at UTS. Rose Draper and Catherine Gleeson are creating animations. Snepo is programming. Sarah Gibson is researching and writing. Sue Maslin is producing.
Great Red Riding Hood illustration by Chiarra Carrer
Today I am intrigued by the work of contemporary German photographer Ute Behrend. Her book Marchen/Fairy Tales places two images side by side that reference each other and evoke the fantasy world of children and scenes from fairy stories.
She writes:
‘Fairy tales are more than children’s stories… they reveal fundamental truths and wisdom. If there is a collective unconscious, then fairy tales are surely firmly grounded in it and whoever is prepared to get involved with them can find them everywhere, knowing full well that everything will always end well.’
I am not so sure about the endings.
For more information: http://www.utebehrend.de/
It was great to experience this interactive fairy tale like experience in the Botanic Gardens.
I encourage everyone to look at the video animations which you can find at
http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/royal_botanic_gardens_rathbourne_lodge/ghostgarden_1.htm?evid=62&id=70&nav=all
This is a great site which recently had a round table discussion about fairy tales. There is a video link here
http://philoctetes.org/Past_Programs/Transformations_How_Fairy_Tales_Cast_Their_Spell
I recently read Ursula Le Guin’s novel Gifts . She writes:
To see your life is a story while you’re in the middle of living it may be a help to living it well. It’s unwise, though, to think you know how it’s going to go, or how it’s going to end. That’s to be known only when it is over.
And even when it’s over, even when it’s somebody else’s life, somebody who lived a hundred years ago, whose story I’ve heard told time and time again, while I’m hearing it I hope and fear as if I didn’t know how it would end; and so I live the story and it lives in me. That’s as good a way I know to outwit death. Stories are what death thinks he puts an end to. He can’t understand that they end in him, but they don’t end with him. (page 15)
I came across this quote from Marlene Dumas
In magical times, times of myth and fairy-tales, gods can appear in all sorts of shapes and combine opposite characteristics. A man can change into a werewolf and with a bit of luck, a frog into a prince. Only love can break an evil spell. Only the touch of the lover can transform the beast into the beauty, and matter into visual sensation. Paintings, need lovers, like frogs needs kisses, to reveal its secrets.
(p 10 Marlene Dumas, Broken White Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2007)
Art is Stories Told by Toads, Marlene Dumas 1988
In Japan it was great to come across new information about artists currently working or who have worked with fairy tales.
Day one I rushed to see a large show of Marlene Dumas at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. I love her strong portraits but was surprised to see her work Snow White + the Broken Arm, 1988 . I think there may be more work in this series.
In Kanasawa, at the 21st Century Modern Art Museum, I saw My Civilization a major retrospective of English artist Grayson Perry. I was thrilled to see his wonderful Baba Yaga hut, chicken legs and all. His work was surprising, complex and amusing.
I also found Fairy Tale -Strange Stories of Women Young and Old by Miwa Yanagi (published by Seigensha Art Publishing, Kyoto, 2007) which records her recent photographic series on fairy tales. It was very exciting to see in this volume other stories she has worked with such as The White Doves, The Wild Swans, The Little Match Girl. There is also some discussion with her about her work.
In an interview when she is asked about continuing to work with images of young girls and old women she says: It just seems that whenever my ’ship’ drifts out to sea, it always washes up on the same shore, as if something were pulling it back. It always runs aground on the same dark continent. The landing place is pitch black, so I can’t even be sure I’m back where I started from. There’s a feeling of frustration, like I’m being washed ashore at the same place over and over. (page 071)
This is her Rapunzle image:
You can see more of her work at http://www.wohnmaschine.de/fairytales.0.html
At the Hara Gallery in Tokyo I saw In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger. It was incredibly powerful to be with Henry Darger images. I was struck by their size, their power and the balance of oppositional elements as he struggled to resolve his own anguish and find form for his encounter with the unconscious. So many elements of the natural world. Red Girl felt she was among ancestors.
I have just returned from a great two weeks in Japan. There was an item in the newspaper 24/6/07″Toes are the new nose job.You can either wear the shoe that fits the foot or make the foot fit the shoe“. Modern stepsisters are undertaking cosmetic surgery to make their toes straighter or shorter fit the shoe.
We are getting very close to user testing of the Electronic Proof of Concept for Re-enchantment. If you would like to be a user tester for this first stage of the project’s development please let me know your email. We are keen to get your feedback on how the interactivity is working and how you respond to the site. This is a draft for the interface you will see when you visit our space.
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