Telling Tales

On first walking into the space, I was surprised by the size of the room. Tiny, crowded, and even dingy. There were strips of fabric falling from above our heads, the segments between them forming dramatically lit booths enclosing a collection of curious objects.

This was the forest glade. A few items immediately caught my eye such as the boat/bath...bath/boat on my left, and the beautiful cow bench, both of which are clever and intriguing. However, what held my eye the longest was the 'fig leaf' wardrobe. It was magestical, it's height was imposing and the curved edges like a canopy from a tree in something like fantasia. At first i thought that the leaves would have been much nicer intricate, but for the purpose the bold and chunky leaves of the wardobe's served well. It reminded me of being little and flicking through old fairy tale books round my nans house and those films you occasionally caught the end of on TV, but never knew the name or had the video, so remained mysterious and much better than those you watched all the time. (For me that was water babies)

Leaving the crooked and devious glade we entered the enchanted castle. Bright and glowing, this room is regal, impressive and rich. There are odd shaped things on my right hung on mirrors bouncing golden rays throughout the room. Despite this room being slightly more roomy, though large it was not, there was plenty to look at in every direction, and you really did have to look to find it all. My favourite in this room was the cinderella table. It had a significant impact on the room, despite being in a corner. It was oddly shaped, and magnificent being made out of plywood but look so expensive, it's quirky lines being those of 11th century tables. I thought it was clever and gorgeous and i couldn't take my eyes of it.
Walking into the last room was like taking a leap of faith, there were few lights in comparison to the gloss of the castle. Plunging into darkness i can see windows and pools of light showing eerie and scary items which alot of the time require the descriptions of them to be understood fully. Its stuffy and hot in here, im squeezing past school children sitting on the floor drawing the pools of blood and getting rather claustrophobic. My favourite in this room is the star of the exhibitions leaflet, Do you hear what i hear? because of my slightly in-appropriate love of taxidermy. A happy, startled looking fox stopped in its tracks has shiney gold maggots growing out of its pricked pointy ears. Its creepy and wrong and enchanting and i love it. This whole room emphasises the 'weakness of flesh' and the 'certainty of death'.

The titles of the different rooms are very interesting and it is odd that they picked those particular names. The items in them are so varied, and sometimes you really cannot tell why they are linked to that room. The forest glade makes me think of nature obviously, and items such as the wardrobe and the honey coombe vase link to that. Forests also conjure up thoughts of old knarled trees mixed with new young sprouts! And i suppose this room also mixed the two. New, strange and innovative ideas with roots in old and complex stories and ideas. The enchanted castle was full of granduer, I always imagine castles filled with furniture and artefacts accumalated over hundreds of years. It looked into old design and re-interpretted it. What was enchanting about this room was the knowledge, it was enchanting to find bits and pieces hidden in the corner and to stare at something and wonder how it was made.

These exhibition has inspired my collection as i like how you have to look for the connection. It's fun there is such variety and everything in it is so beautiful which i really like. Also all of the items meant something on there own as well as in a group, it would be nice to have a collection of lots of beautiful pieces which all have a meaning.