Stories have been shared for centuries and across every culture as a means of entertainment, cultural preservation and education. The artists in Tall Tales used storytelling techniques to toy with our perception of myth, reality, the public and private, ideas on difference, as well as question our assumptions. Their works revealed uncanny scenarios, sometimes pointing to personal stories but more broadly, issues pertinent to society at large and what we might call ‘the human experience’.

The exhibition tour launched in London in Spring 2016 at Freud Museum London, Swiss Cottage Gallery & Library and the Tavistock Clinic and then toured to Touchstones Rochdale, Lancashire, culminating at Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) in Scotland.

Tall Tales artists included:

Alinah Azadeh (Lewes, UK); Ruth Barker (Glasgow, UK); Nicky Bird (Glasgow, UK); Jacqueline Butler (Manchester, UK); Sharon Campbell (Manchester, UK); Beth Collar (Bristol, UK); Alison Erika Forde (Manchester, UK); Sarah Forrest (Glasgow,UK); Rachel Goodyear (Manchester, UK); Oona Grimes (London, UK); Margarete Berger-Hamerschlag (b. Vienna, Austria 1902, died London, England 1958); Lila De Magalhaes (LA, USA); Laure Prouvost (London, UK); Ma Qiusha (Beijing, China); Lauren Sagar (Manchester, UK); Mirjam Somers (Rotterdam, NL); Nina Yuen (NY, USA)

Tall Tales will featured new works and performance commissions by Ruth Barker and Beth Collar, developed for Freud Museum London and Glasgow Women’s Library. A national touring exhibition and distributed programme, Tall Tales presented a significant public programme, informed by research and development. The development programme is iterative and has included research residencies for Ruth Barker with Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and Beth Collar with Glasgow Women’s Library in 2014. In 2016 the results of these residencies were presented, alongside an ambitious touring co-production Call for Cloth by Lauren Sagar and supported by Joanna Peace, both of whom worked with community groups and encouraged participation by the general public across the UK, having kick-started this process at the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival in 2015. Following Lauren Sagar’s collaboration with Sharon Campbell on the award winning Chandelier of Lost Earrings, Lauren Sagar and Joanna Peace worked with community groups and the general public across the UK, actively looking to hear from those interested in taking part. See Lauren’s Tall Tales website page here for more detail and see the Glasgow Women’s Library exhibition archive page to discover the intricate textiles based work produced.