Tale Spin

Wonder Woman, Little Bo Peep, the Catholic school girl, the French maid, and a host of other female fairy-tale figures and popular sexy/strong female characters (which are also popular sexy Halloween alter-egos) all hang in Tale Spin, a solo exhibition of work by Bay Area artist Deborah Oropallo.

These large works are all made of collaged pieces of sheer material, each of which has a part of a figure printed on it. Oropallo layers and arranges the pieces to form one woman. These aren’t deconstructions or reconstructions of singular images, though. Instead, they are deconstructions of sometimes ten or more versions of the same character—all sourced from the Internet and primarily from costume sites—which are then reconstituted into an amalgam of that particular female archetype.

Oropallo has also updated and reinterpreted these characters (notably, here, they are all women, not girls), exposing some of the more violent or grim undercurrents in these traditional tales and stereotypes. “Starvation and abandonment of children, rape, and corporeal punishment, ruthless exploitation—these are some of the conditions that are at the root of fairy tales,” says Oropallo in her artist statement. Several of the figures wear gas masks; bondage accessories make an appearance; Snow White has on a ski mask; and Bo Peep has a dead sheep’s head at her feet (admittedly, it’s surprisingly subtle).

The structures of the compositions give them life and movement—so much so that they verge on self-obliteration or disintegration. Composed of so many pieces of verisimilar parts of verisimilar images, there’s enough overlap from one source image to the next to create a consistent figure, but also enough difference to create distortion. Ultimately, there is no underlying or central image; there is no there, there. These are complex constructed illusions, fantasies on the edge of dissolving.

Deborah Oropallo. Powerless, 2011; mixed media on paper; 60 x 44 in. Courtesy of Gallery 16, San Francisco.

Aside from engaging in the subtleties and tension of composition, this exhibition poses numerous questions. Central among them is commentary on gender power: is female sexual allure strength? These are potent figures, but they are also vulnerable: the fairy tales end with the female either being saved by a man or killed. The fantasy of the maid or nurse is that she’ll dote and serve. Then again, we see daily in the media, advertising, movies and television shows, politics, and at times even at the office, that the woman with the smallest costume can wield an awful lot of power.

Tale Spin is on view at Gallery 16, in San Francisco, through April 30, 2011.

Chérie Louise Turner is a freelance art writer; she writes for art ltd. magazine, Visual Art Source, and Art in America's website, among other art publications, and she blogs at artbeatbayarea.com. She also has a long career in magazine and book publishing; most recently she was the editor-in-chief of the Nob Hill Gazette.