babes in the wood, 2022
SELECTED
The Grimm Fairy Tales were used as propaganda during the Third Reich. In 1940, the German film industry, under the guidance of Josef Goebbels, produced nine feature films based on fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood (Rotkäppchen) was twisted into a tale of the wolf who was characterised as a big, bad Jewish character who devours the innocent little German girl and her grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood skips through the wood in a cloak decorated with swastikas and is rescued from the Big Bad Wolf by a man wearing an SS uniform in the guise of Adolf Hitler. Goebbels’ plan was to sew a seed of racial superiority in the minds of German children, and to regard Hitler as a hero.
Each of the innocent little Jewish children on the wooden cubes are all holding their favourite toy, be it a doll, a teddy bear or a bucket and spade. They were all murdered in the Holocaust.
In situ on The 62 Group of Textile Artists’ Essence gallery at The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London
Measurement: 15.5cm x 15.5cm x 26cm
Process: Hand stitch, digital fabric printing
Materials: Vintage wooden Grimm’s fairy tale puzzle (origin Germany), textile, silk threads
Exhibited in:
Essence: The 62 Group at 60, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London (6 - 9 October 2022)
Essence: The 62 Group at 60, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate (17 - 20 November 2022)