Review of an Illustrated Publication: The Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel illustrated by Sybille Schenker

Sybille Schenker a German illustrator has illustrated a very famous book called ‘’The Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel’’ originally published in 1971, by an author Engelbert Humperdinck. Schenker has illustrated her own version of this book showcasing her own interpretation of the story and her style.

The folklore is a tale for children, about a poor family that does not have enough money to feed their children. Their Dad was a woodcutter living together with his children Hansel and Gretel, and stepmother.  The stepmother was a high focus here because it was her who decided to leave the children in the deepest forest with a slice of bread so they could never find their way back home convincing their dad to agree, and so he did.  Not being able to find their way back home, Hansel and Gretel were lost in their forest where they were taken by and old witch to be eaten alive. Successfully, they have managed to run away from her and find their way back home carrying pebbles from the witch’s house allowing the family to live happily ever after.

“The layering of textures and silhouettes deepens the mystery and darkness of the forest, which the reader must navigate alongside the children in the story.” (Sybille Schenker) Her works is inspired by paper cut art and by using the transparency of acetate paper which I feel like it is the most successful part of the publication because she overlays her beautiful illustrations creating the endless tunnel of forest where the scenery is presented. She uses a lot of connections to nature, like the squirrel on the front cover and the mouse at the back of the book. Inside you can find a beautiful paper cut of a deer and birds flying .

Schenker uses colours to illustrate the dramatic tension of the plot by starting the story with gloomy, dark and upsetting colour black. After this, we can see a change of colours to brighter, when the witch’s house is shown, and only one red page when Hansel and Gretel are inside the witch’s house associating the colour red with death and blood, creating a moment of danger and mystery. When the climax of the story has ended, the resolution of the story have been shown in delicate blue, beige following the last page with forest green colour of a happy ending associated with harmony and safety.

The fairly tale has a very controversial side to the story. Highlighting the subject of Cannibalism which means ‘’The eating of human flesh by another human being.’’ (dictionary.com) when the witch wanted to eat Gretel and Hansel this brought a high pressure and darkness in the story. For children, it might have seen as a fantasy story to make them feel afraid, however I saw this as something inhumane and sadistic. There is a lot of evidence of cannibalism in the ancient times, like ‘’The myths of the ancient Greeks, are filled with cannibalistic creatures like Cyclops. ‘’  (DocSpot, 2017) who is a single eye creature with a gigantic body.

                                 (Cyclops, Greek Mythology)

The evidence of cannibalism in ancient times, has been suggested to be practiced in order to honour the death of people by many tribes, eating enemies to show power and starvation by many.  Recent Cannibalism practice was practiced by serial killers who would kill, sexually assault and eat their victims to psychopathically feel as a whole with them inside their bodies.

The book has been presented very creatively. It has been stitched together using bookbinding process. The front and back cover has a hard cardboard feeling and allows the inside pages to be protected very well. The typography used for the title has been cut through the title using papercut process in a very old age typography style. The pages inside are smooth and are portrayed as a matter of tension and mood within the story.

On the other hand, the cover page could have been created in a more eye-catching way for the viewer to pick it up as it is very dull and depressing. Also, the writing in the story is very obvious, but could have been written a more exciteful  way.

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CTS BRIEAFING 

Element 1: Review (500 words) 

Essay on chosen topic related to CTS (1,500 words) 

Element 2: Minimum 3-5 illustrated blog posts (1,500 words) 

Design rational about layout, format, chosen booklet, why you have chosen your design like this inside the visual booklet (300 words) 

Booklet/catalogue inspired by your visual essay, opportunity to explore your topic in a different way, how to communicate concepts, ideas.

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Funny HAHA Why humour matters?  21/02/19

Humour means ‘’the quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech’’ and ‘’a mood or state of mind’’ from an english dictionary. In today’s lecture we have discussed different types of humour, how humour works and why it is important.

In today’s generation, humour is portrayed in many different examples, like sarcastic, ironic, parodic, stand-up, dark, self-deprecating, anti-humour or panto. All these examples also include different types of comedy like spoof, slapstick, cringe, musical etc. There has been also a great introductory to MEME humour which has been a very powerful of laughter through young generation on internet.

A great number of human relationships varies on the humour they have together, and how well they connect. It is hard to build a strong and long-lasting relationship with someone, if your taste in many different things and specifically laughter doesn’t go well together. Laughing together is beautiful, and creates healthy relationships as well as ‘inside jokes’ Humour depends on three most important aspects, firstly, recognition which is recognising human behaviours and emotional reactions as well as understating ourselves. Secondly, shared understandings which is understanding your humour and what makes you laugh/happy, what doesn’t make you happy and finding the right person to share it with. Thirdly, unspoken Codes, which is almost like an ‘inside joke’ this happens when you laugh with someone without almost saying anything, mostly just looking at each other and already know what is happening, or laughing at a situation with someone where no one laughs. Having codes with the right person, makes you almost unbreakable.

Starting the lecture by watching an animation called ‘’space argument’’ from Modern Toss series. It has introduced us to humour that contains swearing words which in most cases adds this taste of British ‘banter’. The video contains moments of failure and struggle for the astronaut that cannot get out from the space machine because his other friend who seems very idiotic cannot work the machine. The whole animation is created in a very cartoon-ish way, and in the video you can hear the beeps and air flicking like you would imagine in the space, this adds the atmosphere of the space.

On the other hand, overused swearing words might kill humour. I think specifically in this video, it adds this taste of the unprofessional atmosphere in space between astronauts, where in real life we would have never imagined something like this would take place. We portray astronauts as intelligence, brave and able to take risk in a very posh manner. While watching, I realised people tend to laugh at people struggles, and that’s what I did when watching the video. Thinking about this deeply, I feel like we as humans, don’t mean to do it on purpose, but somehow it seems like it is a very relatable situations for us. Everyday brings something new to our life, and sometimes we get angry at our life and what bad karma it can bring. Hence this, we still manage to laugh it out, even when we see someones struggling.

Most common types of humour are slapstick and caricature. Slapstick is a style of humour that involves physical activity only with a large-scale of exaggeration.

Incongruity: a break with expectations, a mismatch, something that doesn’t fit.

Summary about my meme:

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Digital Folklore 28/02/19

Aims of the Session

• Examine the tradition of Folklore (Fairy Tales/Myth)
• Consider how traditional Folklore functions in society
• Examine how such Folklore might be generated in the digital age.
• Consider how Digital Folklore might differ from and share qualities with traditional Folklore

A folktale A story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth. It is steeped in traditional beliefs, customs, passed down through the generations.

• If they were unpopular, they would die

• Traces of folktale in different stories

• Passed through generations

• Stories changes throughout different years and generations, for

• example the context changes, more characters are involved

• Some stories were originated because of religious purposes

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Craftivism: when the pencil gets political 07/02/19 

Lowest art:Craft described as art for everyone and children, DIY, cosplay, collage and hobbycraft. Pottery, jewellery, something that can be taught to other people,

Highest art:Fine art described as paintings, professional artists, sculptures,

Street art: Includes graffiti, installation, street performances such as magicians, respond to the local areas/ speak to people.

Graffiti: Includes spray paint, typography and images on wall.

Graffiti Taki, 1969-72’ about identity, mark on the city

Stay-High 149 1970-75 one the train platforms, so everyone who passes gets to see it.

Riff 170

Blade aka the king of graffiti walking letters trains 1972-84’

Lady Pink, 1983 Feminist artists statements

Ben Eine Middlesex street Spitafield, letters on gates of the shop. ‘’David Cameron presents Barack Obama with graffiti art’’with Ben Eine work.

Chernobyl artists  hallucinations of dystopia future

Grayson perry on craftivisim V&A Craft is something you can learn, and study how to do, however fine art is something that is personal to individuals, something you can’t learn from the artists.

Can art be used as a form of activism?

Craftivism Manifesto, The craftsman

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Essay idea: Assumptions about human behaviour/ how humour and social boundaries effect our everyday life.

Essay notes on social behaviour, book titled ‘’Essential social psychology’’ by Donald C.Pennington.

Intro: The enjoyment and happiness we feel in life is largely affected by the people we surroand ourselves with. The behaviour we present ourselves as is also very much different and selective to the situation and the environment we are in.  The presence of others in comforting because from an

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It’s illustration Jim but not as we know it 14/03/19

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”It’s the end of the world!: Wicked problems and speculative illustration 18/04/19

• Design can be used to understand and solve problems, through a response to a brief
• What if illustrators are confronted with problems really big they can’t be fully solved and understood?
• Utopias and dystopias

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Taste and style  25/04/19

• Looking at the perspective and notion of style
• how individual creator can employ styles that contribute to the formation of an identity
• good taste and bad taste its just personal taste
• how taste functions socially: as perfomative code and mechanism of categorisation, allows us to introduce the concept of taste cultures
• SOCIAL MOBILITY = ABILITY TO NAVIGATE AND MOVE BETWEEN DIFFERENT GROUPS.

 Pierre Bourdieu’s 1979 French sociologist 

Bourdieu’s concept on cultural capital speaks about the collection of symbolic elements such as skills, taste, posture, clothing, mannerism, material, belonging, credentials and many more.

Karl Max 1818-1883 wrote influential theoretical analysis of the economic and social structure known as capitalism. The definitionof capital is that it increases your advantages and enhances your mobility. The forms of capital are cultural that stands for knowlegede, tastes and cultural dispositions, Social: family, network and relationship, Economic: Financial and other tangible assets, Symbolic: qualifications, honours and reputation.

Sam Friedman’s (2014) article about social mobility

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Book notes :  Bourdieu, P., 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 

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Rear View Mirror: Nostalgia and Retro 2th May 2019