Fairy Tale
dal 26/4/2007 al 9/6/2007
Segnalato da
Peter Callesen
Paul Morrison
Vanessa Jane Phaff
Kiki Smith
Annelies Strba
Janaina Tschäpe
26/4/2007
Fairy Tale
Chapter Gallery, Cardiff
Peter Callesen, Paul Morrison, Vanessa Jane Phaff, Kiki Smith, Annelies Strba and Janaina Tschape. The show includes six artists whose work occupies the same territory as the so-called primitive versions of the fairy tales.
Contemporary Art and Enchantment.
Peter Callesen, Paul Morrison, Vanessa Jane Phaff, Kiki Smith, Annelies Strba and
Janaina Tschape
"The witch scoured out the kettle with the snakes, which she tied in a knot. She
then cut open her breast, and let the black blood drop into the kettle, the steam of
which formed such extraordinary figures, enough to frighten any one. Each moment she
threw fresh things into the kettle, and when it boiled thoroughly it was like the
crying of a crocodile". 'The Little Mermaid', Hans Christian Andersen.
'Fairy Tale' includes six artists whose work occupies the same territory as the
so-called primitive versions of the fairy tales: bewitching and transgressive, it
contains stirring kinds of unpalatable truths and has anti-social reverberations.
They touch on escapist and pleasurable states and yet at the same time delight us,
disorientate us, and make our present lives strange.
For Chapter, Peter Callesen has been commissioned to create an icy landscape out of
one giant piece of paper. This paper world will feature a castle on a hill with the
ground covered in giant snowflakes. The exhibition also includes paintings and
prints by Paul Morrison and Vanessa Jane Phaff that generate both a sense of
anticipation and a dark foreboding, and a series of etchings by Kiki Smith that are
charged with danger and eroticism. Annelies Strba's video explores an enchanted
landscape, a dark wood that contains 'delicate beings' seen drifting, dancing and
sleeping, while Janaina Tschäpe's film presents a beautiful woman dressed as a
mermaid repeatedly letting rip an angry scream, silenced only by the fact that she
is underwater.
'Fairy Tale' is a New Art Gallery Walsall Touring Exhibition curated by Angela
Kingston.
A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, including an introduction
by Deborah Robinson from the New Art Gallery Walsall and essays by Angela Kingston
and Stella Beddoe, Keeper of Decorative Art at the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and
Museums, Brighton. The catalogue is available from Chapter at £15.
Chapter Cinema will show a series of film screenings inspired by the theme of fairy
tales to accompany the exhibition, please visit www.chapter.org for details.
Preview: Friday 27 April, 7-9pm
Chapter Gallery
Market Road - Cardiff
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday 12-8pm; Monday 1-5pm.