My work is based on the subtle seduction of the main character in the fairytale, "The Snow Queen,' and the link between the original text and her victims.
This fairytale has been diluted over the years and the darker aspects have been abandoned to suit the younger audiences. I have worked with the original text, focusing on the darker, subversive possibilities to create a piece of work that seduces and concerns the audience.
"Once upon a time the Devil himself made a magic mirror that had the power to distort the appearance of beautiful things reflected in it. It failed to reflect all the good and beautiful aspects of people and things, while it magnifies all the bad and ugly aspects so that they looked even worse that they really are. The Devil wanted to carry the mirror into Heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels and God but as he gets closer to Heaven, it slips from his grasp and falls back to earth, where it shatters into billions of pieces- some no larger than a grain of sand. These splinters were blown around and fell into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things..."
The Devil then falls back to earth and takes on the form of The Snow Queen, where she indulges in the seduction of children who have become frozen by the splintered fragments of the mirror. He she traps them forever by kissing them twice; once to numb them and once to cause them to forget.
Working with the subversive possibilities within the text, I have focused on the seductive elements of The Snow Queen from what i remember as a child and integrated the darker elements as understood from an adult perspective.
I have selected materials that best represent the conflicting elements of the Devil as The Snow Queen; soft fibres and beads that represent the softness of snow and the power of her seductive beauty; glass that represents the shards of the Devils fallen mirror and dolls and body parts that echo the vulnerability of the children that were taken.
Thursday 24 June 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Saturday 1 May 2010
Monday 22 February 2010
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