Paul McCarthy, White Snow #3, 2012

Narrator: What if the Snow White fairytale we all know is just one part of the story? With this large scale sculpture, Paul McCarthy makes us rethink what we know about tales for kids. Look closely at Snow White and the animals in this piece. What do you notice? Things don’t seem to be going all that well around her. But the main character has her eyes closed peacefully as if she is thinking about being somewhere else.

The story of Snow White has been around for hundreds of years in different forms. In fact, it was first published just over two hundred years ago in Germany by the Brothers Grimm. In that version the dwarves don’t yet have names and the evil queen is forced to dance herself to death at the end. By presenting us with a story that’s more nightmare than fairy tale, McCarthy asks us to look at what we think we know about a classic character.