Modern Fairies and Loathly Ladies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Folktales about fairies have become the province of children in modern British culture. Yet the success of works such as Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and World of Warcraft has proved that other kinds of traditional tales still have power to enthral adult audiences and readers in today's world. Tolkien and Martin use European myth and legend to build their storyworlds with stunning success. Modern Fairies and Loathly Ladies will focus on the storyworld of British folk-tales and -songs about fairies and the supernatural, to explores how this material can be re-mediated by award-winning artists to be made relevant to modern audiences. Less-well-known and unusual stories involving fairies and the supernatural will be unearthed through archive research by Carolyne Larrington (Co-I). Larrington will present the tales, motifs and scenes from romance, folk-tale, ballad, and anecdote, recorded in Middle English, Latin and modern English in accessible forms, where necessary translating and glossing, so that the academic and obscure becomes relatable and vivid. Larrington will curate six folkloric themes: the fairy masculine; the fairy feminine, the changeling child, the shape-changing loathly lady, human experience in the fairy-world and the value of fairy treasure. Material relating to these themes will be presented to twelve world-class artists working in a range of different media, from folk musicians (including the PI, Fay Hield) and storytellers, to visual artists and poets. They will choose stories, scenes, and moments from the themes, and will work collaboratively to produce new songs, stories, poems and artworks based on the traditional material. Open notebooks, blogs and collaborative sharing will enable insight into the creative processes across different media while work is in progress.The new artworks produced will be performed to the public in six informal 'Gatherings' at Sage Gateshead. This performance format is open-ended and flexible, allowing artist and director responsiveness to individual audiences and the varying materials produced by the themes. One artist will take the lead in directing and curating each 'gathering'. A variety of art forms (music, painting, poetry, story-telling) will feature in every 'Gathering'; artist-audience interaction will be encouraged and invited. Programme notes of different types, and informal spoken introductions to themes will complement the artists' creations. Audience research will be carried out by Sarah Price (RA) using talk-based methods. The project leaders and their partners will be enabled to understand how audiences engage with new art drawing on traditional themes, how relevant they find folk-tale narratives and motifs to their own lives, what kinds of programme notes and other complementary materials enhance or detract from the audience experience, and how new audiences can be attracted and grown through local and traditional story mediation. Thus the project surfaces the experience and knowledge of creative artists in the work in progress stage and drills down into audience and performer experience through targeted qualitative interviews. In addition, this project represents a creative developmental phase for a future free-standing performance-based artwork, to be produced in collaboration with the Sage Gateshead. Moreover, the project tests the viability of 'gatherings' as a format for artistic development through performance.The inventive and responsive methodology, from source-research, through presentation to artists, creative composition and audience-engaged performance, to lasting outputs, will produce a new model for community-based arts interventions and experiences.