Mirror Mirrored: Art Meets the Monsters

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) was pleased to present Mirror Mirrored: Art Meets the Monsters, curated by Michelle Aldredge and Corwin Levi. This mixed-media exhibit reimaged select Grimms’ Fairy Tales through the eyes of contemporary visual artists.

The tales the Brothers Grimm released into the world two centuries ago (as Children’s and Household Tales in 1812) are woven into the fabric of our lives. They have informed our campfire stories, Disney’s iconic films, and our reflections on human nature. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed that fairy tales held the key to understanding human archetypes and the collective unconscious. Today, these stories—and new readings of them—are more important than ever. Pairing fairy tales with new artwork is not only a way of reemphasizing the stories’ relevance to diverse contemporary audiences, but also a way of challenging the canned notions of beauty, good and evil, and identity that many have popularly ascribed to them. Also, as it turns out, those notions are not quite so canned as we have come to believe over the last hundred years…

For Mirror Mirrored: Art Meets the Monsters, artists from across the country have created pieces for a new Brothers Grimm compendium, forthcoming later that year. This exhibition marked the first time a selection of those pieces will be shown together.

Participating artists include: Anne Connell, Brittany DeNigris, Anna Schuleit Haber, Joseph Keckler, Margaret Lanzetta, Corwin Levi, Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, David Packer, Rachel Perry, Agustin Lucho Pozo, Pam Rogers, DJ Spooky, Debra Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and Stephanie Williams.

Programs:

Opening Reception
Friday, March 4, 2016, 7-9pm

Curator Talk
Saturday, March 5, 2016, 2-3:30pm

Performance
Joseph Keckler, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, 7-8:30pm