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Sleeping Beauty

Art

The Weirdest Interactive Installations and Performances

By Alison Nastasi on

Interactive installation art and audience-immersive exhibits and entertainment have been around for quite a while, but as our culture and its propensity for extremes continues to evolve, these artworks and performances have followed suit. Viewers really want to be part of the show, and the constant shift in power between artist and spectator-turned-participant is an exciting and unpredictable draw for people.

We spotted a current installation at the National Art Museum of Ukraine on Gawker recently, and felt inspired to round up a few other interactive and immersive works that required a steep commitment from audiences. They range from the radical to the absolutely bizarre. We feature them all after the jump — from a real-life sleeping beauty, to an artist that asked people to shoot him. Feel free to drop your favorite interactive performance/installation craziness in the comments section. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we tried to guess what prophetic utterances were from British Vogue, Game of Thrones, and The Book of Revelation. We found out what famous literary characters were almost named. We looked at tattoos couples covered themselves in and hoped they were still in a relationship. We celebrated … Read More

Film

10 Twisted Fairy Tales on Film

By Alison Nastasi on

IFC Films’ Sleeping Beauty — the Jane Campion “presented” movie directed by Australian novelist Julia Leigh — slinks into theaters this Friday. Sounding more like Anne Rice’s sadomasochistic Sleeping Beauty trilogy than the classic tale we knew as children, the film finds Emily Browning as a university student who gets wrapped up in an erotic whirlwind with a dark twist we’ll let you discover for yourself.

Many films have lifted the veil on fairy tale fantasies, revealing the depraved, pitch-black narratives hiding in literature’s fabled legends. One flip through the storybook confirms that our childhood fantasies were a treasure trove of primal fears and sexual anxiety. Coming-of-age nightmares, patriarchal distress, and feminine paranoia are just a few of the Grimm-inspired subjects that Hollywood has explored in its retelling of these mythic stories. Click through for a look at ten films that put a dark twist on our favorite fairy tales. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we fell madly in love with Tina Fey’s swaggering daughter, Alice. We enjoyed Best Week Ever’s roundup of the 20 most inappropriate songs ever used in commercials. We wondered why Beyonce’s new single sounds almost exactly like Beyonce’s old single. We almost lost our lunch after… Read More

Books

Pic of the Day: Get Back in Your Book

By Kelsey Keith on

Canadian photographer Lissy Laricchia riffs on fairy tales and children’s stories with a photo series depicting “characters who strive to stay in the real world,” with dirty feet and noses stuck in books. She photographs Belle, Alice, Wendy, Harry, and Arora suspended in a mid-air fantasy land, sucked in to their respective titles. The results — pairing ethereal photography with literature — is stunning. Come with us down the rabbit hole after the… Read More