The StoryTeller
Production still from The StoryTeller 1987 / Director: Jim Henson / Image courtesy: Shout! Factory / View full image
When
2 Dec 2023 – 28 Apr 2024
Where
Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema B
About
Daily screenings from 10.30am to 4.00pm
Jim Henson’s beloved television series The StoryTeller 1987 will screen daily as part of the ‘Fairy Tales’ film program. Told across nine separate episodes, this anthology series draws from several European fairy tales, many of which were first published by the Brothers Grimm. Bringing together a human cast with enchanting puppets developed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, these tales are rich with wonder, mystery and delight.
Episodes:
Hans My Hedgehog
Hans, a young hedgehog-boy, is ostracised from his village. When he helps a lost king, he is rewarded, but is it too great a gift to give?
Fearnot
Fearnot is a young man who is incapable of being frightened. He leaves home on a quest to experience the shudder of fear.
A Story Short
The StoryTeller is tasked with telling a story every day for a year on pain of death. When he runs one story short he is helped by a mysterious stranger.
The Luck Child
The seventh son of a seventh son is prophesised to be ruler, setting the reigning king on mission against destiny.
The Heartless Giant
A young prince is tricked into freeing a cruel giant. Attempting to stop the ensuing rampage, he must find where the giant has hidden his heart.
The Soldier and Death
An honest soldier receives magic gifts for his kindness, which give him extraordinary powers of trickery.
The True Bride
Anja is imprisoned by an evil troll, and must escape with the help of the wonderous Thought Lion.
Sapsorrow
Fleeing her kingdom to escape an arranged marriage, a princess takes shelter working as a scullery maid, disguised as an ugly hag.
The Three Ravens
An evil witch charms a widowed king into marriage, turning his sons into ravens to protect her power. To return her brothers to human form, the princess must keep an oath of silence.
QAGOMA Stories
See all-
Read • Patricia Piccinini’s paradox: The Carrier
Patricia Piccinini’s The Carrier 2012 is both provocative and thoughtful, the artwork hints at what is possible from the creatures we may want to create in the not-too-distant future, making us focus our attention on what may lay ahead for us — is this relationship between humanoid and human how we will care for our ageing population? The carrier himself is a muscular male, strong and powerful with bright eyes and bear traits in his nose, tail and claws, he is balding, with age spots, yet his bear-like physique is able to lift the frail woman behind him with ease. It seems the carrier and woman are connected in some way, physically but also emotionally, therein lies the conflict. Perched up high, she looks comfortable and content to rely on his assistance, yet what is their relationship, why is he carrying her, is it an equal partnership, or is he just performing a service? We can wonder if the carrier is the next step in post-human technology, his life seems perfectly engineered to the task he performs, and it is feasible that he is happily self-employed. Listen to Patricia Piccinini Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes Known for her imaginative, yet strangely familiar, lifelike hybrid creatures, Patricia Piccinini invites us to think about our place in a world where advances in biotechnology and digital technologies are challenging the boundaries of humanity. ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection‘ / Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / 24 March – 5 August 2018 -
Read • Turning bats into fungi: Watch as we install Patricia Piccinini’s Grotto
Patricia Piccinini has terraformed her suite of immersive multisensory installations at GOMA during ‘Curious Affection‘ to resemble earth – however she has taken every freedom, turning flowers into flesh, torsos into trees, and bats into fungi – and vice versa. Brimming with fertility, Piccinini conjures a sense of how very different our world could be if we modeled different values – and sought to participate in the natural world to infuse it with new potential for wonder and enchantment. Together, these elements make an expansive world to navigate and explore. The Grotto, one of the installations especially conceived for GOMA’s expansive spaces, is a place of wonder inhabited by three Eagle Egg Men who share their ‘camp’ with flying foxes – mega bats. These bats are pollinators, a vital link in the chain of fertility that link animals and plants, fungi too, occupy this web of life. Watch | Timelapse Patricia Piccinini, Australia b.1965 / The Grotto 2018 / 300 objects: ceramic, copper / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist; Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco / © The artist Patricia Piccinini reflects on ‘The Grotto’ Feature image detail: Patricia Piccinini’s The Grotto 2018 installed at GOMA