Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Fairytales & Mythic Moments

Old Wives
Once Upon An Other Time
A visual exploration of Fairytales, Myths & legends by Tanya Wilkinson and Kristine Mays

"Such stories... open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe." — J.R.R. Tolkien (On Fairy-Stories)

Exhibition dates:  Weds, Aug 31 - Sat, Sept 10th
Reception: Saturday, September 10th from 4-7pm
Gallery Hours:  Weds, Thurs & Sat 12-5pm.

Location:                                                           Contact: tanya.wilkindaughter@gmail.com
ARC Project Gallery, between 8th and 9th
1246 Folsom Street
San Francisco, California

WORK IN PROGRESS FOR "ONCE UPON AN OTHER TIME"
 When a story is foolish and fit only for the gullible we call it, misogynistically enough, an "Old Wives Tale".  In my opinion, the "Father of History", Herodotus, was the first Old Wife to publish. The many strange stories and the folk-tales he tells also earned him the title of 'The Father of Lies'.  If you want a good description of the Phoenix rising from it's own cremation, or of the strange Scythian ability to fly, you can't beat him.

detail, Old Wives












There is a collection of tales from the Middle East that is, in a way, a paradigm for story-telling. 
1001, detail
The One Thousand and One Nights of Scheherazade is a compilation of Middle Eastern, South Asian and Mesopotamian folktales and legends.  It presents the human compulsion to narrate as, literally, a lifesaver.  The collection is framed by the story of Scheherazade's nightly effort to avoid execution by telling a good tale.  Framing devices are incorporated throughout the tales themselves. Some proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Layers of archetypal reality overlap and intersect as the nights unfold. These are detail sections of a 7 foot long scroll named "1001".

Tanya Wilkinson

Tanya Wilkinson