Fairytales in the 21st century

The Cottingley Fairies Hoax, 1917

What is the place for fairytales in 21st century society? I ask this because they have been on my mind recently. The current, free, exhibition at the V&A is Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design which explores story-telling through decorative devices. The exhibition is divided into three sections, The Forest Glade, The Enchanted Castle and Heaven and Hell. All three section titles are strong themes within fairytales.

I got home from the exhibition and pulled my dog-eared copy of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales from the shelf. Doomed love, failed quests and death are all presented as inevitable yet the reader is held to account and asked to look at their own moral code to see how we ourselves can ease the burden of the human condition. Through good deeds The Little Mermaid can gain an immortal soul, which will take 300 years. But children can help shorten this sentence by being good to their parents - for every good child found The Little Mermaid's sentence is reduced by a year.

The new production of All's Well That Ends Well at the National Theatre references fairytales through the set and costume design. The marrying of the fairytale theme with this Shakespeare play works incredibly well. The production team have thrown this play into the 21st century and have placed the audience into the shoes of the small child reading Hans Christian Andersen. In this morality tale, Helena is the protagonist who goes on a quest to win her love, the Count Bertram. She is set a succession of seemingly impossible tasks but it is through the 'trial' of Bertram that she really wins. She is Cinderella, she is Red Riding Hood but ultimately, she is a modern heroine as no-one can beguile her with pumpkins and big eyes.

I also have to mention, as a shoe-lover, that Helena wears the most amazing pair of sparkly shoes I have ever set eyes upon. Oh, to have a key to the National Theatre's Wardrobe Department!

Fairytales have got lighter over the last century, perhaps attributable to Walt Disney. The Little Mermaid that I grew up with was actually the 1989 animated Disney film. She does not die in the end. The lesson learnt was that we would grow up to have whatever we wanted, in this case Prince Eric. When I read the original at university I was shocked to say the least - things are not always going to turn out how we want?! A year later in 1990 Pretty Woman hit the cinema. The modern, self-conscious Cinderella story. Another reminder that dreams will come true. But are we turning back to a darker interpretation of fairytales?

Does the 21st century audience now crave the gritty reality that Hans Christian Andersen so expertly delivered? Are we like the children of the 19th century, in need of moral instruction? Telling Tales at the V&A highlights a reversion to the exploration of mortality through modern design and All's Well That Ends Well does not end on a particularly light note, Helena got her man - but does he really deserve her? I am not sure where 'happily ever after' originated and I don't know how appropriate this line is to the fairytales I have encountered this week.

J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite at the Royal Academy

The Lady of Shalott, J.W. Waterhouse, 1888

On 27 June, J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite opens at the Royal Academy. I have loved his painting of The Lady of Shalott since I was a teenager. It is perfectly evocative of Tennyson's poem of the same name - a wonderful poem to lose yourself in. The following stanza is captured by the painting:

Lying, robed in snowy white

That loosely flew to left and right -

The leaves upon her falling light -

Through the noises of the night

She floated down to Camelot:

And as the boat-head wound along

The willowy hills and fields among,

They heard her singing her last song,

The Lady of Shalott.

Here is my favourite:

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,

Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,

Till her blood was frozen slowly,

And her eyes were darkened wholly,

Turned to towered Camelot;

For ere she reached upon the tide

The first house by the water-side,

Singing in her song she died,

The Lady of Shalott.

The poem was also the inspiration for the title of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side:

She left the web, she left the loom,

She made three paces through the room,

She saw the water-lily bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She looked down to Camelot.

Out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror cracked from side to side;

"The curse is come upon me", cried

The Lady of Shalott.

Beyond Bloomsbury Private View

Roger Fry in the Omega Studio

Last Wednesday I attended the Private View for Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19 at the Courtauld Gallery.

The exhibition is extremely well curated and provides a rare chance to see sketches of the designs from the workshops. A positive Bloomsbury treasure trove - the rooms are crammed with drawings, paintings, ceramics and rugs. The exhibition highlights just how varied and dynamic the creative output from the workshops was in such a short time.

It is fascinating to see the sketch and the finished piece side by side. The rug for Lady Ian Hamilton, designed by Vanessa Bell, is placed next to the preliminary design offering a unique chance to draw comparisons. This is also true of the painted silk with peacocks by Roger Fry; the Peacock Stole - the silk is brighter and less concentrated whereas the sketch is actually more dynamic.

The wonderful, messy structure of White the furnishing fabric designed by Vanessa Bell, is not to be missed and a true gem within the exhibition is the Omega signboard, designed and painted by Duncan Grant. A glossy mess of colour and intense design, the signboard articulates the liberation through abstract design that defined the work of the designers.

The exhibition paves the way for further exploration of the designs of the Bloomsbury Group and their influence over modern creative practitioners.

The following, characteristically pertinent, quote from Virginia Woolf is as meaningful today as it was during the uncertain early 20th century: "[Omega is] a beacon of civilisation in the midst of chaos" - for us in the midst of global recession we need 'beacons of civilisation' in our lives, so go to the Courtauld Gallery for a reminder that civilisation was and still is, in operation.

Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19

Design for a screen depicting Adam and Eve. Image courtesy of the Courtauld Gallery

This exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery opens on 18 June and is a major event for those interested in the Bloomsbury Group.

The Omega Workshop was established in 1913 by Roger Fry and was a progressive design collective with the intention of introducing the avant-garde into the modern Edwardian home. No artist was allowed to sign their work, instead they marked everything designed and produced with the Greek letter omega Ω. Members of the Omega Workshops included the Bloomsbury artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

I am attending the Private View for Beyond Bloomsbury, which I am very excited about, so I will post a sneak preview review of the exhibition.