East End Review

Tag: Museum of Childhood

  • Sonya Hurtado: capturing the innocence and cruelty of fairytales

    Sonya Hurtado: capturing the innocence and cruelty of fairytales

    Red Riding Hood by Sonya Hurtado
    Pigments of the imagination: ‘Red Riding Hood’ by Sonya Hurtado

    Tales that are passed down through word of mouth evolve according to the whims and mores of society.

    And so fables such as Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk have over time become sanitised, the safe fantasy world they inhabit taking precedence over the stories’ more macabre elements.

    It is this duality that that Hackney-based artist Sonya Hurtado tries to capture in a new exhibition of her work at the Museum of Childhood.

    Tales is a series of 12 photographs that re-creates the imaginary world of childhood, drawing inspiration from surrealism, film and graffiti.

    Tale of the Milk Lady - Sonya Hurtado
    Pasturised: ‘Tale of the Milk Lady’ (el cuento de la lechera) by Sonya Hurtado

    At first the images seem like paintings. In Red Riding Hood, a girl with a flowing red hood stands aloof in a field, whilst Tale of the Milk Lady sees a river of spilt milk propel forward, smashing a window.

    “Behind a fairytales is always a dark message,” Hurtado says. “A lot of these messages were not so hidden but have become camouflaged to be nicer for the kids and not so scary.

    “Take Jack and the Beanstalk. In reality Jack goes to the giant’s house and at the ends kills him, so in that story we admire and cheer on someone who is actually quite cruel.”

    The unusual appearance of photographs is due to digital manipulation, with the artist playing with shadow, light and colour to convey a borderline sinister atmosphere.

    Pied Piper by Sonya Hurtado
    Follow the leader: ‘The Pied Piper’ by Sonya Hurtado

    The photographs deal with themes such as how children can struggle to come to terms with complex emotions such as loneliness and fear.

    “We can’t always protect our children but we can help them to interpret their experiences in a way that helps them learn step by step to understand themselves and life,” she explains.

    Hurtado was born in Spain and moved to London in 1998, where she discovered a love of photography during a course at Hackney Community College.

    After graduating in 2013, she began developing an almost painterly technique using digital layering to create atmospheric scenes of childhood angst.

    “I try to put myself in the kids’ shoes and imagine an imaginary world. A lot of kids look at the pictures and recognize the story but adults can look at them and see something else.”

    Tales: Photography by Sonya Hurtado
    Until 8 January 2017
    V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA

    Alice in Wonderland -Sonya Hurtado
    On the lookout: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Sonya Hurtado

  • Afro Supa Hero at the Museum of Childhood

    The Harlem Globetrotters game
    Supa: The Harlem Globetrotters game. Photograph: Museum of Childhood

    Featuring an array of pop cultural figures and figurines, Afro Supa Hero is an exhibition by graphic designer and art director Jon Daniel offering a unique window into African Caribbean life in 1960s and 70s London.

    It maps the influences of popular and less widely known black cultural heroes, at a time when the scattered population in London could not find the icons they sought in England.

    The collection commemorates the transitional journey to adulthood of a boy who looked for inspiration from black role models in African-American culture, as well as figures from his own family background.

    Daniel was inspired to display the figures and comics after a post about his collection on the Creative Review website received a great deal of positive feedback.

    It hasn’t been an easy collection to build. He says: “It’s taken 20 years, and some of the pieces took a long while to get hold of and were quite pricey!”

    Running in concurrence with Black History Month, the exhibition showcases classic 1970s action figures such as Mr T along with historical personalities such as Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali.

    Also on display are a range of games and comics from the period, including Lobo that featured the first lead African American character to appear in a comic book.

    However, it is not just the cultural and comic book figures from the exhibition to which Daniel attributes his personal development. A photograph of his brother also features. He says it was a combination of familial and cultural icons that influenced him.

    This synthesis of characters allows for a strong embodiment not just of the era, but of the artist they helped shape.

    Afro Supa Hero will be at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA, until 9 February 2014.

     museumofchildhood.org.uk