CAMIBAart is pleased to present Tales We Tell, an exhibit of the newest body of artwork by Russian born Austinite Yuliya Lanina. 

This exhibit features a series of paintings and small-scale mechanical sculptures based on popular folk tales.  Collectively they examine the underlying moral messages of fairy tales and their effect on child’s psyche.  Each sculpture is comprised of a painted wooden box with moving figures, as well as a wind-up mechanism that plays a melody custom-composed for each scene by composer Yevgeniy Sharlat.

In their modern version familiar to every child, Western fairy tales tend to sugar coat their original import. Yet even watered down, they speak of older men and women terrorizing young children, fathers leaving their children in the woods to die, and stepmothers feeding their husbands’ biological children poisoned apples.  The more graphic tales often contain an undercurrent of violence, incest, and sexual abuse, and even the milder ones teach children to be subordinate, to never question authority, to blame themselves for their misfortune, and accept their fate.

Included in this exhibit are poems by six poets, written specifically for each scene.  Presented alongside each music box, some of these poems re-imagine the tales while others delve deeper into possible meanings and/or lessons.

This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development.

Mass-produced mechanical toys for children are ubiquitous – think crib mobiles that play Brahms’ lullaby. These quaint devices have been bringing much joy and enchantment to children since antiquity and possess a timeless quality. Yet we never think of them as vehicles for artistic expression and rarely value the craftsmanship and precision required to create the metal cylinder and the mechanism that coordinates music with motion. The rocking figures are usually naïve and kitschy; the music – soothing and innocent. However, there is an incomparable intimacy to the viewing experience – starting it up, watching a scene unfold, and sensing the vibrations of the plucked metal pins as they form a melody. Lanina uses the immediacy of that experience to show suggestive scenes accompanied by sweet and unfamiliar melodies.

Earning a BFA from Purchase College of Art & Design and a MFA from Hunter College in New York, Yuliya Lanina is an all round creative, with a wide range of awards, grants and scholarships recognizing her talent in film, performance, visual art and public art.