Dystopian Fairy tales

Taking great inspiration from Angela Carter’s series of short stories The Bloody Chamber, subverted and twisted re-imaginings of classic fairy tales and legends that delved into the perversions of humanity and the conflicted ideals of sexuality, gender love and identity. In particular I was interested in the stories; The Bloody Chamber, about a diabolical Marquis who finds pleasure in feminine beauty and sexual innocence before destroying these and then physically killing it; Wolf Alice, in which a young girl thinks shes a wolf and can’t comprehend her own image in the mirror and her guardian is a twisted man who has become a monster after attempting to uphold his masculine identity; and The Tiger’s Bride, subverting the story of Beauty and the Beast into the tale of a daughter disillusioned with her father’s betrayal of her in gambling her away for other possessions, and she learns not to fear but embrace the Tiger’s true bestial nature as she becomes a beast herself.

 Therefore I set about creating my own version of contemporary fairy tales drawing on the historical tropes, tales and dialogue that these created. Initially I ambitiously attempted to re-imagine and refine 6 stories, two of which were not based on any particular story, but felt they didn’t have as much impact or were as focused and so focused on 3 illustrated story concepts instead of creating a confused book in order to give them greater impact and a more defined and powerful tale to tell and in order to create an open dialogue between the image and text in a similar vein to Barbara Kruger or Lawrence Weiner whilst drawing on the illustrative narrative language of  fairy tales. My main pieces ended up being based upon Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood and the mythological persona of Pan.

           

Quickly pen lined copies on acetate in order to project them bigger onto canvas.

29.7 x 21 cm

Fine liner pens on Bristol board.

Trying out a more strikingly illustrative style with more defined and detailed lines and strokes.

42 x 29.7cm

Tonal pencils on paper.

21 x 29.7cm

Watercolours and pencil on watercolour paper.

Experiment with paper cut outs on black card and writing.

21 x 29.7cm

 

Initial pencil sketch.

21 x 29.7 cm

January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: My Artwork, research, Uncategorized, UniversityTags: Angela Carter, anthropomorphism, Barbara Kruger, betrayal, dystopian, fairy tales, femininity, gender, ideals, identity, inks, Lawrence Weiner, legends, masculinity, pencils, pens, re-imaginings, reality, sexuality, The Bloody Chamber, traditional, watercolours, Wolf Alice Leave a comment

Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber

“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”

“Her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soullessness.”

–The lady of the house of love

“When I saw him look at me with lust, I dropped my eyes but, in glancing away from him, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I saw myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.”
–The Bloody Chamber

“There is a vast melancholy in the canticles of the wolves, melancholy infinite as the forest, endless as these long nights of winter and yet that ghastly sadness, that mourning for their own, irremediable appetites, can never move the heart for not one phrase in it hints at the possibility of redemption.”

–The Company of Wolves

” nothing about her is human except that she is not a wolf”

“Like the wild beasts she lives without a future.”

–Wolf Alice

 Angela Carter’s series of short stories The Bloody Chamber are incredibly unsettling and powerful, subverted and twisted re-imaginings of classic fairy tales and legends that delved into the perversions of humanity and the conflicted ideals of sexuality, gender love and identity. In particular I was interested in the stories; The Bloody Chamber, about a diabolical Marquis who finds pleasure in feminine beauty and sexual innocence before destroying these and then physically killing it; Wolf Alice, in which a young girl thinks shes a wolf and can’t comprehend her own image in the mirror and her guardian is a twisted man who has become a monster after attempting to uphold his masculine identity; and The Tiger’s Bride, subverting the story of Beauty and the Beast into the tale of a daughter disillusioned with her father’s betrayal of her in gambling her away for other possessions, and she learns not to fear but embrace the Tiger’s true bestial nature as she becomes a beast herself.

Carter weaves her narratives and concepts deceptively in the guise of these fairy tales and exposes the destructive act of reading identities and genders as romanticised or idealised and enforcing these as goals of a hegemonic norm which are ultimately unattainable and damaging. Whilst her stories cover many themes, its evident that gender and sexuality are prominent throughout and how characters are forced to shape them into something that cannot ever fit and the consequences of this.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, Novel, research, UncategorizedTags: Angela Carter, animals, anthropomorphism, childhood, corruption, fairy tales, gender, gothic, hegemony, horror, identity, innocence, Lacan, Mirror theory, narrative, Novel, re-imaginings, repression, sexuality, subverted, symbolism, The Bloody Chamber, The Company of Wolves, The Tiger's Bride, violence, wolf, Wolf Alice Leave a comment

Max Ernst: A Week of Kindness

Max Ernst’s ‘A week of kindness’, was incredibly influential, in its subversion of human desires and actions with the amalgamation of animals in its chaotic and somehow enchantingly nostalgic collage landscapes. Ernst also draws upon the image and connotations of the Gothic with Malcolm Gee describing that there are “recurrent themes of sexuality, anti-clericalism and violence, by dislocating the visual significance of the source material to suggest what has been repressed.” Ernst’s exploration of the Gothic appropriates classical dreams and erotic fantasies which “seem to mysteriously lure the unconscious into view” (Stanley Applebaum).  Visually, the collages are hauntingly beautiful and often incredibly disturbing in their use of disjointed, surreal image placement and are able to spin complex stories and concepts through a series of images.

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by InfinitelyElise Categories: Artist, UncategorizedTags: A Week of Kindness, anthropomorphism, Artist, chaotic, collage, figure, gothic, Max Ernst, re-appropriation, sexuality, surreal Leave a comment