September 28 through
November 30, 2012 Sun Valley Center for the Arts
Walter Martin & Paloma Muùoz, Captured I, 2009–11, c-print on Fujicolor Crystal Archival Paper, courtesy the artists and P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York
Happily ever after? — September 28 – November 30, 2012.
e think of fairy tales as entertainment for children, but they are among the darkest stories we tell. Wicked stepmothers abandon children deep in the forest. Babies are stolen by witches and imps. Cunning wolves impersonate helpless grandmothers. While some fairy tales have happy endings, others do not. The Matchstick Girl freezes to death, while the vain girl so enchanted with her Red Shoes loses both her feet before dying of a burst heart. Many classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen have roots in earlier stories, stories passed orally and through the written word from generation to generation. We continue to tell these terrifying stories for the same reasons they have been told for centuries. They serve as cautionary tales, warning children of the consequences of immoral behavior and (perhaps especially) the perils of the natural world. The protagonist in The Red Shoes learns to regret her vanity. Sleeping Beauty’s evil stepmother dies of rage. Had Little Red Riding Hood listened to her mother and not spoken to the Wolf, she could have spared her grandmother the horror of being swallowed up whole. And poor Thumbelina, captured by frogs, engaged to a mole, and finally saved by a bird. Rich with colorful characters, mysterious settings and wondrous events, fairy tales serve as warnings about the importance of appropriate behavior as well as the dangers that lurk in the forest. They occupy our imagination as young children; as we grow up, our understanding of them shifts and deepens. This project is an exploration of fairy tales’ roots, commonalities and hidden meanings.
Visual Arts. The visual arts exhibition features work by contemporary artists exploring the complex ideas behind storytelling and fairy tales. Some question or re-tell traditional cautionary tales. Others create work that draws on the fantastic imagery and powerful narrative that define the fairy tale, evoking classic stories without referring to them specifically.
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Claire Cowie, No Escape (detail), 2012, gouache, ink, watercolor, acrylic, graphite, collage, thread, courtesy the artist, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, and James Harris Gallery, Seattle
Andrea Dezsö works in media that range from artist books to room-size fantasy environments. Composed of cut-out silhouettes of plant, animal and human forms, her large-scale illuminated installations weave folklore, fantasies, and fears. At The Center, she is creating a site-specific installation inspired by fairy tales. This installation is generously sponsored by Ellen Hanson and Richard Perlman.
Claire Cowie, No Escape (detail), 2012, gouache, ink, watercolor, acrylic, graphite, collage, thread, courtesy the artist, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, and James Harris Gallery, Seattle
Claire Cowie has created a new body of work for the exhibition that draws on a number of well-known fairy tales including Hansel and Gretel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Wild Swans, Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White. Consisting of nine works on paper, her installation interweaves symbols from each of these stories, creating a visual narrative that is both rich and disorienting. It addresses themes common to many fairy tales: fear and anxiety, deception and manipulation, vulnerability and seduction. Andrea Dezsö in her site-specific installation Sometimes in My Dreams I Fly, Rice Gallery, 2010, photo by Nash Baker, courtesy the artist
Painter Erin Rachel Hudak makes work about wolves and their narrative associations. Taking portraits of famous Americans, she collages wolf masks onto their faces. In other images, wolves appear covered in glitter and neon paint. The pieces allude to the duplicitous nature of wolves in fairy tales: dressed in Grandmother’s clothes in Little Red Riding Hood, disguising his voice and hiding under a sheepskin in The Three Little Pigs, and, of course, the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Kent Henricksen, Laugh, Dance, Sing, 2008, embroidery thread and silkscreen on silk, courtesy the artist
Kent Henricksen’s images of children singing, dancing and playing belie their initially lighthearted appearance. Often hooded or masked, Henricksen’s strange figures get at the contradictions at the heart of many fairy tales, in which characters are often not who they seem to be, and disguises are central to the storyline. —
Erin Rachel Hudak, Henry Ford from the series Great Americans, 2012, vintage book page, found photograph on paper courtesy the artist and Ochi Gallery, Ketchum
Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz are best known for their appropriation and transformation of the snow globe, an object associated with childhood souvenirs of vacation destinations. The snow globes Martin and Muñoz make, however, are far from idyllic. They contain darkly humorous and sometimes sinister scenes of human and animal figures in often bizarre scenarios. Their snow globes, like the artists’ photographs, ask viewers to create their own narratives around the figures and settings. While not based on particular fairy tales, these works draw inspiration from fairy tales’ dark side.
Kiki Smith, Companions, 2001, lithographic diptych in 11 colors on T.H. Saunders Waterford HP paper, ed. 14/28, published by Universal Limited Art Editions, © Kiki Smith/ Universal Limited Art Editions, 2008
Internationally renowned artist Kiki Smith has produced a body of work about fairy tales, gender roles and identity. The exhibition features three prints she has made exploring the complex relationship between the wolf and the protagonist of Little Red Riding Hood.
Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, Traveler CCXC (290), 2012, glass, water, wood, plastic, courtesy the artists and P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York
The Gallery.
Film.
Classes.
Opening Celebration and Membership Party.
The Princess Bride
Family day: Happily Ever After? Create Your Own Fairy Tale Book
Book Discussion: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber
Sat, Oct 27, 3–5pm The Center, Ketchum FREE
Tue, Nov 13, 6:30–8:30 pm For adults and older teens The Center, Ketchum $10 members / $20 nonmembers
Fri, Sep 28, 5:30–7pm The Center, Ketchum Join us for the opening celebration of Happily Ever After? and our annual membership party! Dress as your favorite fairy tale character! Artist Andrea Dezsö will speak about her installation at 6pm. —
Fri, Sep 21, 6:30pm Free at The Center, Hailey Join us as we kick off Happily Ever After? with a free outdoor screening of The Princess Bride (1987), featuring all the elements of the classic fairy tale: a villainous prince, a beautiful princess, a giant, swordplay, adventure and romance! Bring the family, a blanket and a picnic and enjoy a movie under the stars.
Exhibition Tours.
Tue, Oct 9, 2pm and by appointment Free at The Center, Ketchum Trained Gallery Guides offer insights into the artwork on display in free exhibition tours. Favor de llamar al Centro de las Artes para arreglar visitas guiadas en español. — Gallery Walks.
Fri, Oct 12 and Fri, Nov 23, 5–8pm Free at The Center, Ketchum Join us for a glass of wine as you view the exhibition. — Evening Exhibition Tours.
Thu, Oct 18 and Thu, Nov 15, 5:30pm Free at The Center, Ketchum Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with The Center’s curators and gallery guides.
Theater. Happily Ever After? — A Concert Exploring Fairy Tales in the American Musical Theater
Fri, Nov 9 & Sat, Nov 10, 7pm Liberty Theatre, Hailey $30 / $20 seniors / $10 students Ticketing through Company of Fools: www.companyoffools.org or 578.9122 Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Company of Fools present Happily Ever After?, a concert exploring fairy tales in the American musical theater. For two nights only, the Liberty Theatre will come alive with music from favorite shows including Into the Woods, Cinderella, Shrek, Once Upon a Mattress and Wicked. This enchanted evening, directed by R. L. Rowsey and John Glenn, features several of Broadway’s most dynamic artists. Generously sponsored by Jeri L. Wolfson.
Families will have an opportunity to tour The Center’s exhibition exploring familiar tales about princesses, wolves, dark forests and fairy godmothers. Participants will then create their own book based on what they’ve seen and heard. — Teen Workshop: Happily Ever After?…REDO with Denise Simone of Company of Fools
 Sat & Sun, Nov 3 & 4, 10am–3pm $10 pre-registration required The Center, Hailey Registration deadline: Fri, Oct 19 Discover what happens to that fairy tale you thought had ended happily ever after in this two-day theatrical workshop led by Company of Fools’ Core Company Artist Denise Simone. Exploring characters from the more well-known Grimm’s fairy tales (Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel and others), you’ll create monologues from your character’s perspective of life after the happily ever after. On the second day of the workshop, we’ll rehearse and tie the monologues together to create pieces that will be shared with an audience later that day. As part of the experience you’ll also be invited to a closed rehearsal of Company of Fools’ concert exploring fairy tales in the American musical theater.
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In Angela Carter’s obituary Salman Rushdie wrote, “with Angela Carter’s death English literature has lost its high sorceress, its benevolent witchqueen, a burlesque artist of genius and antic grace.” Thirty years after the publication of her most famous work, The Bloody Chamber, readers are still shocked or at least riveted by her recreation of stories we thought we knew. Bluebeard and Little Red Riding Hood will never be the same. Ryan Waterfield will lead a discussion of Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and will guide participants through this dense and lyrical work.
Readings & Lecture. New and Improved Fairy Tales
Mon, Oct 22, 5:30pm Free at The Center, Ketchum Invited to reimagine what happily ever after might mean, students from The Community School have written updated and abbreviated fairy tales. Join us for an evening of new fiction created by local students. — Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket)
Sun, Nov 18, 6:30pm Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater, Hailey $15 members / $25 nonmembers $5 students “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.” So begins Daniel Handler’s wildly popular series of books, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. His work revives and modernizes the tradition of telling menacing, exciting and ultimately portentous stories to little kids. For as long as we’ve been telling stories to children we have told of witches in candy houses, princes who have been turned into frogs and children held captive by trolls. Handler reminds us why this tradition is so important. And so much fun.
Erin Rachel Hudak, Hello Sunshine, 2011, mixed media on canvas, courtesy the artist and Ochi Gallery, Ketchum
Center hours in Ketchum: M–F 9am–5pm 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho www.sunvalleycenter.org 208.726.9491 P. O. Box 656 Sun Valley, ID 83353