Fairy tales have been hijacked throughout history for various uses...
They have weathered the translation from one medium to another, from one distribution method to another, many times. Fairy tales have been duplicated, mistranslated, and subverted.
It could be that
Cinderella
is the world's most-told tale...There are thousands of versions, each one colored by the details of local culture, the needs of its audience and the desires of its teller. At the core of a Cinderella story is the configuration of the step family. The girl left in their care becomes subservient, degraded. We identify with her through our own experiences of loss, humiliation and enslavement.
Buried among the world's heap of Cinder tales, you will find the Russian version, in its multiple incarnations.
It is the tale of a girl called Vasalisa and her encounter with the powerful hag Baba Yaga.
The Vasalisa Project served as MFA Thesis for Joellyn Rock in 2001. It has continued to expand over the past few years... it includes the digital fairy tale: Bare Bones, an essay on design and storytelling: Vasalisa Electric, a collaborative installation: Hothouse, and a published version in Marvels and Tales. Hundreds of images were generated during the course of the project, some are available now as archival inkjet prints.
