grim Fairy Tales

Anna Dorrington's exhibition confirms her interest in exploring and exposing issues

about the role of women, female identity and society's expectations of the ideal woman.

In this exhibition, Anna delves into the rich history of folk and fairy tales,

exemplified by the Grimm brothers.

These tales have, for centuries, codified women's roles.

This rich vein of storytelling laid out the rewards for the compliant, good woman, and the

pitfalls for women who buck the system or threaten the status quo. In the fairy tale the

good woman gets her prince, while the strong woman gets her comeuppance.

Anna has drawn on the magical and dreamlike qualities of this tradition of storytelling

to force the viewer to ask, who were the real heroes and the real villains of the familiar tales?

Anna Dorrington with her works in the grim Fairy Tales exhibition

Image: Marc Stapelberg, www.northernstar.com.au

All “girls” of the 50s and 60s grew up on a diet of such story telling. Anna asks, what were

these tales really saying to women? Anna’s critique demonstrates her belief that this diet

had a strong and profound influence on how women understood their role in society.

Anna helps the viewer realise that, rather than dismiss or discard the old fairy tales,

strength lies in reclaiming and reframing them. Anna cleverly demonstrates that what

can work against women’s liberty can be made to work for their emancipation.

Just like fairy tales, Anna’s art offers more than a superficial reading. It has complex

layers of meaning, and these layers will reveal themselves to the interested viewer.

Opening night. (Image: Tiggie Tighe)

'Let's not follow the Leader'

3D collage - detail below