Fairy Tales: Far from home

Tue 16 Jan 2024

Family dynamics play a crucial role in fairy tales. Many begin with a rupture in the home that compels a character to undertake a quest, which then provides the setting for lessons in independence and resilience. Estrangements come in many forms: between children and vindictive step-parents (with their equally unpleasant offspring), or between jealous siblings squabbling for attention or power. Sometimes these separations are the result of a parent whose absence, be it through death or distraction, creates a vacuum for harmful forces to enter the home. Most parents in classic fairy tales are not to be trusted, and happy families are rare.

Characters who find themselves far from home are confronted with the unfamiliar and are called upon to turn challenges to their advantage. Living in the royal court is an aspirational ideal in many fairy tales, including ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’. In other tales, a character achieves wealth and power through their cunning. ‘Trickster’ protagonists — a role often occupied by wolves, foxes and monkeys, who possess human traits — feature in these tales. Their disruptive and clever acts make us aware of power imbalances influencing the characters’ fates.

‘Fairy Tales’ unfolds across three themed chapters. ‘Into the Woods’ explores the conventions and characters of traditional fairy tales alongside their contemporary retellings. ‘Through the Looking Glass’ presents newer tales of parallel worlds that are filled with unexpected ideas and paths. ‘Ever After’ brings together classic and current tales to celebrate aspirations, challenge convention and forge new directions.

Travel with us in our weekly series through each room and theme of the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) as we highlight some of the works.

DELVE DEEPER: Journey through the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition with our weekly series

EXHIBITION THEME: 4 Into the Woods

‘Sky’, ‘Moon’ & ‘Sun’ costumes ‘Peau d’Âne (Donkey Skin)’ 1970

The darkest of the classic tales is Charles Perrault’s ‘Peau d’Âne (Donkey Skin)’ from 1695. It tells of a king who promises his dying queen that he will only remarry a woman as beautiful as she, with the unfortunate consequence that their own daughter becomes the sole candidate. In the story, the princess’s fairy godmother instructs her to outwit the king’s request for marriage with a series of impossible demands — a dress the colour of the sky, one of the moon and, finally, one of the sun (illustrated). When the three challenges are met, she asks the most impossible request yet: a cloak made from the skin of the magic donkey that fills the kingdom’s coffers. The king agrees, and the princess is forced to flee the kingdom, unrecognisable beneath the donkey cloak.

This tale was adapted for film in 1970 by Jacques Demy, a renowned director of the French New Wave. Demy harnessed his characteristic use of vibrant colour, stylised sets and musical performance to amplify fantastical elements of the tale, while exploring themes of class, gender and social expectations. Inspired by Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) 1946, Demy also pays homage to Cocteau’s influence through his stylistic and special effects choices, script and casting (Jean Marais was both the Beast in Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête and the King in Demy’s Peau d’Âne).

Peau d’Âne (Donkey Skin) 1970 G screens at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA

Abdul Abdullah ‘Troubling the margins’ 2022

In fairy tales, many characters live by their wits rather than by the comforts of birthright and status. Often taking the form of an animal with human traits, they rely on their resourcefulness and trickery to create a life of adventure and reward. The tale of ‘Puss in Boots’ is one such story.

Australian artist Abdul Abdullah comments on ideas of ownership, place and belonging in the large-scale photograph Troubling the margins 2022 (illustrated), from his ‘Interloper’ series. Majestic in size, Abdullah casts himself as the fox, a trickster figure in many fairy tales, seated among the chickens, comfortably laying claim to the hen house, an esky by his side. The work was inspired by Abdullah’s time in London, where he noticed a fox darting in and out of London alleyways as he passed by at night. The sense of being an unwanted presence at the urban margins struck a chord with Abdullah, whose practice looks closely at the way marginalised communities can become are targets for vilification.

The ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition is at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Australia from 2 December 2023 until 28 April 2024.

‘Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment‘ presented in conjunction with GOMA’s blockbuster summer exhibition screens at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA from 2 December 2023 until 28 April 2024.

The major publication ‘Fairy Tales in Art and Film’ available at the QAGOMA Store and online explores how fairy tales have held our fascination for centuries through art and culture.