Nightmares Come to Life

The Stuff of Nightmares exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Cambridge Heath Road, London, explores the darker side of traditional fairy tales looking under the veneer of innocence of the stories we have told and re-told to successive generations of small children.  Fairy Tales describe fantastical worlds inhabited by extraordinary characters and impossible events. The narratives contain familiar themes with good triumphing over evil, heroes behaving selflessly, love enduring and everyone living happily ever after.  However, traditional tales also delve into the darker side of a child’s imaginary landscape and tap into anxieties and fantasies that run deep.

During The Stuff of Nightmares exhibition, the gallery is transformed into a creepy forest where anything might happen. The dark setting for a re-telling of the Brothers Grimm’s Fundevogel, a tale of abduction, fear, evil old women, revenge and ultimately, the power of friendship.  The installation, made by local schoolchildren working with artists, sits alongside work by Katherine Tulloh, Ruth Weinberg, Jemima Brown, Daniel Bell and Sharon Brindle, which takes a closer look at the playthings of innocents, rather more sinister than sweet.  The exhibition includes a police identity parade of villainous toy suspects, rounded up to assist the forest police with their inquiries. This provides a rare opportunity for some of the Museum’s far from cute objects to be on display. For more information, go to www.museumofchildhood.org.uk