trevor h smith

Proposal for artwork

Location:             The Curve, Bath Spa University, Sion Hill.

Working title:  Morphology of the Folk Tale.

Medium:             Vinyl text, placed directly onto the curved wall, replaced every day at 8.30am for a set number of days (anywhere between five and thirty five).

The Idea:             Russian literary critic Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp analysed plot elements of Russian folk tales to identify the most common narrative elements.  This work was published in his book ‘Morphology of the Folktale’ in 1928, and continues to be used in media education today.  Propp determined 31 functions, after the initial situation is described, that can be applied to almost any story, from Shakespeare to video games.

The proposal:    On each day, for the duration of the exhibit, I will post a piece of vinyl text, describing a new progression in the plot of the folk tale.  Each will be depicted in black vinyl, using the Garamond typeface.  Each piece will consist of a title, a short description, and a short explanation (see below for examples).  Over the duration of the exhibition, an entire plot structure will reveal itself.

Example:

ABSENTATION

A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. Hero introduced as ordinary person.

Initial tension injected into the story.

The series continues like this through further stages in the morphology of the folk tale, including:

Interdiction

Reconnaissance

Delivery

Trickery

And many more.