Fairy Tales: Curiouser & curiouser!

Sun 25 Feb 2024

Just as the woods are a recurrent setting in classic fairy tales, gardens are important to many stories told since the nineteenth century. Expectations of gardens as picturesque and orderly are often subverted in these tales. Following the White Rabbit into Wonderland, Alice remarks ‘curiouser and curiouser!’ at her strange surroundings; and Dorothy passes through fields of poppies on her journey through Oz. These gardens’ surreal and fantastic properties are navigated with the help of extraordinary guides.

In these uncanny landscapes, the perceived divide between the social and the natural world is porous. We are encouraged to rethink our understanding of sentience (the ability to experience feelings), and to marvel at the ecologies of our world. Here, science, psychedelia and the supernatural combine to present new possibilities for discovering unseen realms and encountering wonder in the everyday.

‘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.

The film program ‘Fairy Tales Cinema: Truth, Power and Enchantment‘ is presented in conjunction with the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition

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 delve into some of the works on display.

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

EXHIBITION THEME: 9 Through the Looking Glass

Patricia Piccinini ‘Enchanted Field’ 2023

Patricia Piccinini’s magical installation Enchanted Field 2023 (illustrated) presents a collection of fragile, otherworldly creatures sheltered beneath another of her works, Celestial Field 2021 (illustrated) — a canopy of nearly 3000 ‘genetically modified’ blooms, forming an inverted garden in the sky. Piccinini’s vision is an invitation to a world of secrets, joys, sorrows and, above all, the possibility of meaningful relationships between humans, plants and animals. In this surreal landscape, the viewer also encounters two iterations of Piccinini’s Mushroom Ring 2021 (illustrated), with its central rotating forms, along with the suspended revolving sculpture Strand 2023; and Shoeform (Tresses) 2019 (illustrated), the brightly coloured mushroom caps of which unfurl to release a new wave of life.

Piccinini’s landscape of curiosity, beauty and unconventional encounters traverses the width of the gallery space. Viewers are welcomed by the feline‑esque creature La Brava 2021 (illustrated) and farewelled by a pelican-like creature nuzzling its tiny offspring, Clutch 2022. Both are gentle allegorical sculptures of bodies that appear to have been genetically modified to mimic the shape and texture of footwear. Creatures of biology and mass production, these works explore Piccinini’s interest in the increasingly porous subjects of science, technology and nature. In the tender sculpture at the centre of the installation, Sapling 2020 (illustrated), a son — who is a childlike plant — rides high on his human father’s shoulders, their heads resting together in connection and contentment. This work, which was inspired by a report on an ancient tree surviving on a busy intersection surrounded by petrol stations, considers the complex organic connections, relationships and biological intelligence of plants, and the possibility of them having agency.

Yayoi Kusama ‘Flowers that bloom at midnight’ 2011

Size often plays a significant role in fairy tales, be it through transformation, tests of character, moral lessons, or simply quirks of the magic realm. Yayoi Kusama’s exuberantly colourful Flowers that bloom at midnight 2011 (illustrated) that greets you at the entrance to the ‘Fairy tale’ exhibition is an especially large-scale blossom. With its gazing eye, it considers us at our own level, seeming to follow our movement around the space. You may well imagine Thumbelina, the fairy tale girl born of a magic flower, emerging from Kusama’s work, with its polka-dotted petals and highly polished surface of otherworldly pop allure.

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.

Featured image: Patricia Piccinini, Australia b.1965 / Shoeform (Tresses) 2019 installed in ‘Fairy Tales’, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 2023 / Resin and automotive paint / 58 x 35 x 52cm / Collection: Patricia Piccinini / © Patricia Piccinini / Photograph: C Baxter © QAGOMA