Myths, half truths and fairy tales - many artists use shared stories in their work, often challenging or subverting the original. These ideas, which already have a familiar resonance with the viewer, can be used to comment on or to reflect our everyday reality, as artists adapt motifs and narratives from socially shared beliefs and tales to reflect and question how we live and see. Fairy tales have always been a powerful force in reflecting and in helping to shape morality, particularly in the past for children, but we continue to share stories and beliefs of many sorts - from gender specific behaviour to half-humorously held folk beliefs, which at their best can foster the faculty of wonder and of imaginative wishful thinking.
Works by: Chan-Hyo Bae, Sarah Ball, Barnaby Barford, Zoe Childerley, Matthew Cowan, Claire Curneen, Laura Ford, Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn, Daphne Plessner, Paula Rego, Elaine Wilson
