The ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition comes alive with magical moments that defy expectations. Timothy Horn’s Mother-load 2008 presents an improbable object — a coach made of sugar — rendering make‑believe into reality, while Glass slipper (ugly blister) 2001 gives a modern take on the ‘Cinderella’ story with an oversized, highly embellished jewel-encrusted slipper.
‘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 take you on a tour of artwork highlights on display.
DELVE DEEPER: Journey through the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition with our weekly series
EXHIBITION THEME: 12 Ever After
Timothy Horn ‘Mother-load’ 2008 Australian sculptor Timothy Horn’s Mother-load 2008 (illustraterd), from his ‘Bitter Suite’ series, is a striking half-sized rendering of an ornate sedan chair — popular among the Neapolitan elite of the eighteenth century — encrusted in golden crystallised rock sugar. The work is grounded in the historical ‘rags to riches’ tale of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels . Spreckels rose from humble beginnings as a child of Danish immigrants to become a renowned North American art collector, philanthropist and socialite through her marriage to sugar baron Adolph Spreckels, whom she affectionately called her ‘sugar daddy’.
Mother‑load is inspired by the antique coach owned by ‘Big Alma’, who used it as a phonebooth in her Pacific Heights mansion in San Francisco. This highly embellished sculpture presents the kind of impossible fantasy of wealth and opulence central to many aspirational stories, including ‘Cinderella’. Its sugary materiality — beckoning viewers to contemplate a forbidden taste of the artwork.
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Timothy Horn, Australia/United States b.1964 / Mother-load 2008, installed in ‘Fairy Tales’, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 2023 / Crystalised rock sugar, plywood, steel / Courtesy: Timothy Horn / © Timothy Horn / View full image
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Timothy Horn, Australia/United States b.1964 / Mother-load 2008, installed in ‘Fairy Tales’, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 2023 / Crystalised rock sugar, plywood, steel / Courtesy: Timothy Horn / © Timothy Horn / View full image
Timothy Horn ‘Glass slipper (ugly blister)’ 2001 In contrast to the faceted lines of an all-glass slipper, the jewel-encrusted lead crystal creation of Timothy Horn, Glass slipper (ugly blister) 2001 (illustrated), from the artist’s ‘Cinderella Complex’ sculpture series, captures the grandeur of the court of Louis XIV and the Palace of Versailles at the time of Charles Perrault ’s telling of ‘Cinderella’. In the Baroque period, glass mirrors and crystal were highly valued objects of opulence and luxury. Fascinated by eighteenth-century engravings, patterns, jewellery and fashion, Horn blends a love of Baroque and Rococo art and glasswork.
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Timothy Horn, Australia/United States b.1964 / Glass slipper (ugly blister) 2001, installed in ‘Fairy Tales’, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 2023 / Lead crystal, nickel-plated bronze, Easter egg foil, silicon / 51 x 72 x 33cm / Purchased 2002 / Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra / © Timothy Horn / View full image
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.
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‘Fairy Tales’ merchandise available at the GOMA exhibition shop or online. / View full image
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Fairy tales are not bound by borders, social class, custom, religion, age or time. They are products of our desire to consider the world around us from within the safe realm of fiction. Fairy tales come to meet us where we are; they shift and change to reflect the needs and wants of audiences. The hopefulness embodied in many fairy tales once functioned to alleviate the drudgery of daily life — they both entertained and imparted wisdom.
The classic tales of ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’ promised better times and, if this was not possible, at least concluded with satisfactorily gruesome endings for the wicked. These stories were written at a time when women’s autonomy and access to education were severely restricted and, according to the law, they were subordinate to their fathers or husbands. For early readers, ‘happily ever after’ represented the institution of marriage and a life of stability, free of strife and hardship.
Watch | Director Tarsem Singh’s filmic adaptation of ‘Snow White’
Courtesy: Relativity Media
Watch | Go behind-the-scences of Eiko Ishioka’s costumes
Courtesy: Relativity Media
When the Parisian aristocracy recorded these stories — with their ostentatious ballrooms and banquets, luxurious carriages, opulent dresses, expensive jewellery and impossible shoes — they evoked aspirational wealth, status and power. Marrying for love, and between classes, were risky topics for the time.
While the visions of adventure, community, happiness and love in wonder tales of centuries past still intrigue contemporary audiences, many stories today are being retold in ways that challenge patriarchal systems and imagine new, more equitable ways of living for all.
A romantic fairy tale requires a wardrobe to match. Dress is critical to the identity of many fairy tale characters: it indicates status or occupation, and signals magical transformation. For Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka the costumes for the queen in Mirror Mirror (2012) are a demonstration of power and wealth. The costumes worn by Julia Roberts as ‘Queen Clementianna’ are oversized and highly embellished, sculptural in form and bold in design and colour. For Ishioka, it was important to reveal aspects of the character’s personality and emotions, the gold thread and detailed embellishment is important and reflects Clementianna’s assertions in the film that gold is her colour. The eye-catching ‘Peach dress’ costume (illustrated) is intended to intimidate her subjects through its opulence and scale. Another stunning creation for Queen Clementianna, the ‘Green dress’ costume (illustrated) conveys the complexities of character through colour, which shows the depth of the queen’s envy of Princess Snow played by Lily Collins, the highly constructed and precise nature of the dress also reflects Clementianna’s attempts to conceal her true personality in order to woo the prince played by Armie Hammer.
Eiko Ishioka (designer) ‘Green dress’ and ‘Peach dress’ costumes
Eiko Ishioka (Designer) ‘Yellow dress with hood’ costume
Showcased in the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition are eight incredible creations by Ishioka, created for Mirror Mirror — director Tarsem Singh’s filmic adaptation of ‘Snow White’. Richly detailed and sumptuously executed, Ishioka’s costumes bring the impossible luxury of fairy tales to life and highlight the aspirational nature of stories in which characters rise above servitude to a life of privilege and financial security.
‘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 focus on the stunning costumes from Mirror Mirror (2012) on display in Australia for the first time.
DELVE DEEPER: Journey through the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition with our weekly series
EXHIBITION THEME: 13 Ever After
Ishioka described her concept for Mirror Mirror as ‘hybrid classic’, an approach that allowed the designer to draw on fashions from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries to create the grandeur and whimsy of the fairy tale aesthetic sought by director Tarsem Singh. Ishioka led the creation of more than 400 costumes, as well as the purchase of and alterations to an additional 600 existing costumes. While many were completed by local costumiers and craftsman in Montreal, close to her studio and the film’s shooting location, the primary costumes were handmade in New York across four different ateliers; Tricorne Costumes, Jennifer Love Costumes, Carelli Costumes and Eric Winterling Costumes.
Eiko Ishioka (designer) ‘Cream wedding dress’ costume
The centrepiece of these extraordinary creations on display in ‘Fairy Tales’ is the exceptionally romantic ‘Cream wedding dress’ costume for Snow’s stepmother, Queen Clementianna. With its heavy layers of silken petals and vine motif, the garment has a vast circumference of 8.5 metres, weighs approximately 27 kilograms, and was designed to dominate the room.
Eiko Ishioka (designer) ‘Swan dress’ & ‘Rabbit suit’ costumes
These are the first of two costumes created for Princess Snow (Snow White) and her handsome beau, Prince Alcott. Worn during the film’s masquerade ball scene, the princess’s ‘Swan dress’ costume symbolises her youthful vitality and gentleness. The flowing white gown, with its wings and headdress, depicts Snow’s desire to escape the restrictive confines of life with her stepmother, Queen Clementianna.
Accompanying this costume is the ‘Rabbit suit’ costume worn by Prince Alcott, chosen for him by the queen, who is trying to charm the prince into marriage. She attempts to flatter him by saying, ‘In folklore, the rabbit is known to use cunning and trickery to outwit his enemies’. With its prominent bunny ears and lopsided top hat, Prince Alcott concedes that he ‘looks ridiculous’ when dancing with Princess Snow.
Eiko Ishioka (designer) ‘Wedding dress’ & ‘Wedding suit’ costumes
Princess Snow’s blue wedding gown features a burst of orange sleeves and an...
The final major theme of ‘Fairy Tales’, ‘Ever After’ addresses love and the myriad ways this complex emotion plays out in the genre. While the sentiment of ‘happily ever after’ often implies romantic love, fairy tales also offer broader perspectives on human connections, including love in all its forms — familial, platonic, intellectual and, of course, unrequited.
Bringing together works of art, design and film, ‘Ever After’ draws on the influential writings of Hans Christian Andersen, Carlo Collodi, AS Byatt and Oscar Wilde, alongside the many stories inspired by the Arabian Nights — also known as One Thousand and One Nights — a volume of Middle Eastern folktales and stories from across the Arab world and India.
Published at the same time European fairy tales emerged from French salons, these stories were first translated from Arabic in the early 1700s by French orientalist Antoine Galland, who took the liberty of adding his own now-famous tales, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’. Hugely popular, their themes of wealth, revenge and transformation merged with European conventions to forge the modern fairy tale. These influences can be seen in the aspirational stories of ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’, narratives that continue to inform our understanding of fairy tales and romantic love to this day.
‘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 take you on a journey to see magical objects on display.
DELVE DEEPER: Journey through the ‘Fairy Tales’ exhibition with our weekly series
EXHIBITION THEME: 11 Ever After
Lotte Reiniger ‘Aladdin and the Magic Lamp’ (1954)
‘Arabian Nights’ (or ‘One Thousand and One Nights’) — a collection of folktales from the Middle East — have been influential throughout the history of cinema, not least in the work of German animator and filmmaker Lotte Reiniger. Reiniger’s Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) (1926) (illustrated) was released more than ten years before the Walt Disney Studio production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), making it the earliest existing animated feature.
Reiniger was the foremost pioneer of the silhouette animation technique, created by manipulating cardboard cut-outs of characters and backgrounds, frame by frame, the camera overhead taking a single shot with each movement. Reiniger would go on to make more than 60 animated films, sequences and advertisements using this painstaking technique. A tale of love, adventure and a genie, Reiniger’s Aladdin and the Magic Lamp (1954) (illustrated and screening in ‘Fairy Tales’) recreates sequences and motifs from The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
Hans Christian Andersen Papercuts c.1850s–70s
Danish author and artist Hans Christian Andersen was one of the most prolific tellers of fairy tales of the nineteenth-century. He wrote 168 tales, including the beloved stories of ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘The Little Match Girl’ and ‘The Nightingale’, to name just a few. Andersen embraced the joy and wonder of fairy tales; his poetic stories often focused on themes of identity, transformation, and the complexities of human emotions. In contrast to the Brothers Grimm, who collected existing stories from others, Andersen wrote new fairy tales, drawing on folklore, mythology and his own experiences.
In his private life, Andersen was also a great oral storyteller and entertained his friends with delicate papercuts, which he would unfurl to reveal enchanting pictures and landscapes filled with trees, castles, theatres and dancers. Andersen described these scherenschnittes (‘scissor cuts’) — inspired by the ancient Chinese art of papercutting and silhouette puppetry popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — as a prelude to writing. He would produce the papercuts during after-dinner conversations, gifting them to his companions and hosts. While not directly related to Andersen’s famous tales, the nine papercuts on display in ‘Fairy Tales’ feature recurrent images drawn from the theatre, ballet and other performances, as well as images capturing the widespread nineteenth-century fascination with distant lands and cultures.
Henri Matisse Ballets Russes costume c.1920
In Hans Christian Andersen’s story ‘The Nightingale’ (1843), a Chinese emperor learns the value of unconditional love and forgiveness from a nightingale, a small brown bird with a magical voice. Despite being replaced by a prettier, jewel-encrusted, mechanical songbird (presented to the emperor as a gift), the nightingale returns to him in his hour of need. Andersen’s reflection on the timeless worth of friendship expressed in this story also reflected his era, one of great industrialisation, in which the values of nature and technology were being weighed.
Andersen’s ‘The Nightingale’ has been adapted to stage and screen, including, most notably, for the Paris-based Ballets Russes’s 1920 variation of composer Igor Stravinsky’s 1914 opera Le chant du rossignol (Song of the Nightingale), on display in ‘Fairy Tales’ is Costume for a mourner c.1920 (illustrated), one of most famous costumes from the performance. Known for their unconventional and ambitious productions, the Ballets Russes developed inventive collaborations with choreographers, composers, designers and artists.
Henri Matisse was commissioned by Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev to design the costumes, set and decorative elements for the production. Costume for a mourner is one of the few costumes to have survived. Influenced by the Persian and Indian art Matisse had seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London while working on the ballet, the costume’s design also features the artist’s distinctive use of paper-cutting, evident in the appliqué of velvet chevrons adorning a loose-fitting white felt robe and headdress. While Matisse’s more widely known ‘cut-out’ period did not emerge until much later in his career, this early use of cut‑outs in...
