Into The Woods...It's Time For A Story...

The forest - a place for transformation. What lies in the shadows?

Wild woods and lands are the threshold places where stories can come alive. Are the trees friendly and will they protect us? What happens if we stray from the path? And when we are in the woods what creatures will know we are there? Whose eyes are looking, watching, (waiting), peering though the woody darkness? 

The big bad wolf in a land that never was in a time that could never be

Beautiful objects and images made using a natural colour palette are put together in our collaborative piece - The Story Cabinet. Here, old and new stories will join and overlap providing a feast for the eyes in three wooden cabinets.  An alternative term for 'fairy tale' is 'wonder tale' from the German Wundermärchen and these cabinets are just bursting with 'small wonders' to bring you the magic of far away realms full of mystery, morals and magical characters.

Let us take you back to a time when humans and animals could talk to each other. Come, peep through a window - a portal to another place - and Join with the story. Those who live there can't see that a giant lurks nearby....

A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders....

Art Nouveau window frames a story

...there was a little window at the back of a house from which a splendid garden could be seen. Full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs, it was however, surrounded by a high wall. No one dared to go into it because it belonged to a wicked enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded throughout the land. 

The couple there had no children and were very poor. All they had was a cow. One day he gave her a bunch of keys that would open any door except one door she must not go in and the key to that door was magical. At last he dropped off to sleep. When he woke up, the room looked so changed. The sun was shining into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. 

Who lives here? - a place of safety or imprisonment?

The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. A white bird always came to her there and every time the bird threw down to her whatever she had wished for. In the morning she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, very badly!" she said. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!" 

The wicked thought grows all the time like a poisonous plant and slowly kills the good thoughts. A wicked feeling was growing in the stepmother's heart, and she determined to send the children to the witch. She threw one of the shirts over each of them and when the shirts touched their bodies they were transformed into swans, and they flew away over the woods.

Time -  past, present and future.

The next morning she went out and gathered asters and began to sew. She could not speak with anyone and she was warned that she had to return before midnight when the spells would be broken. 

And the pea? The pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it. 


There, that is a true story.

(But only one of many that could be told).





The Story Cabinet will be exhibited at Hove Museum from December 3rd until April 2017 as part of Fabula Collectives forthcoming exhibition "Many Ways to Tell A Story". 

Come and visit and see if you can find the pea in the museum!

What's The Story? - part 2

Do you remember a post called What's the Story Part 1 about some art work made by Dagmara Rudkin giving clues to a fairy tale that we wanted you to guess?  Well, this is the post that will give you the answer (but not straight away)! First we will elaborate on some previous clues and then show some more images by Dagmara before we reveal all.

Remember this? This was the last visual clue on the previous 'What's The Story' post. Dagmara said this was a bit obscure and last time when we were wondering what it meant we said:

 " What's the significance of the hands? - hands with leaf textures that look like veins or wrinkles? Perhaps a connection to nature, time or age is important? Numbers are often significant in fairy tales - are there any significant numbers here?"

Well here's a further clue: Numbers are important in this fairy tale but not the number that might come to mind from looking at this hand. Now that we know the answer we'd say that these hands, amongst other things, are saying something about work.

If you look at the previous What's The Story post you will see feathers and wings drawn to illustrate this fairy tale. So we thought you'd like to see some more of Dagmara's drawings that were made at Hove Museum in response to their temporary exhibition "Birds of a Feather". The colourful collages were inspired by the beautiful drawings of exotic birds also exhibited there.  There is still a chance to see the 'Birds of a Feather' exhibition until 15th November.

Dagmara drawing birds at Hove Museum

The answer to What's the Story coming soon....!

We hope you enjoyed that visual interlude!  The important clues were the nettles (the number of leaves printed and nettles as part of the hand ), wings from swans, clothing or characters that had wings or feathers. 

The answer to What's the Story is ...'The Six Swans' by the Brothers Grimm.

Follow the link above to find out more about the tale and you'll be able to see how the clues relate to the story.

Fabula Collective are in residence at Hove Museum. The next time that you can come and see what we are doing at the museum is Monday 26th September. We look forward to meeting you soon.

What's the story? - part 1

We thought it would be fun to have a bit of a guessing game in this post that will be ongoing and always called: 

'What's the Story?'

The images below are clues to a story that will be part of The Story Cabinet - remember our previous post where we told you a little bit about that?  Fabula artist Dagmara Rudkin has made these beautiful prints, collages and drawings at Hove Museum, where we are currently artists in residence. We hope you like them as much as we do. But what story do they tell? Can you guess? 

Dagmara hasn't told us what she has in mind because that would spoil the guessing game. You may remember from our previous post about The Story Cabinet that it will refer to a fairy tale or myth. 

The above image shows a very decorative print and Dagmara has told us that it was made from nettle leaves. Could nettles themselves be a clue to the story? 

This image is part collage and part drawing. It has a wing but also resembles a human and Dagmara appears to be developing a character. As inspiration for this piece she has been drawing and photographing dolls from the museum's permanent collection.  These can be found in a room called The Wizard's Attic, upstairs at Hove Museum. This contains a fantastic collection of toys and childhood memorabilia.  We're spending a lot of time there - it's well worth a visit.

So - what stories, myths or fairy tales, do you know that feature wings or feathers? What kind of wings are these? Thinking about the dolls and the leaves, we're wondering if scale is an important clue? Perhaps the leaves could represent trees? 

Here's the last clue for this post (but there will be more to come in future posts about this story and others).  We're going to tell you, in case it helps, that when Dagmara sent this one she said it was 'a bit more obscure'. 

What's the significance of the hands? - hands with leaf textures that look like veins or wrinkles? Perhaps a connection to nature, time, or age is important? Numbers are often significant in fairy tales - are there any significant numbers here? 

We've got some ideas now but, as we said - we don't know for sure what the story is - so we might be sending you in the wrong direction!

We're looking forward to the next clue from Dagmara and we'll post it here soon.

Dagmara Rudkin is a Brighton-based visual artist whose practice crosses the boundaries of fine art, design and craft.  For more information about her work please go to the Fabula website www.fabulacollective.com

If you'd like to see for yourself what we are doing and how we work - do come down and see us during our residency at Hove Museum. 

The next time we will be there is Monday 1st August. 

We are easy to spot because we are all wearing black T shirts with white question marks on and we'll be very happy to talk with you and show you our work.

If you'd like to read Hove Museum's post about our residency in their 'News From The Museum' - you can do so via this link: http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/tag/fabula-collective/