Anne James on how Oxon children have assisted in the Once Upon a Time exhibition

Dr Melissa Westbrook founded the Neo-Outsider Art Move-ment in 2010. She developed the concept behind the movement in response to 20th century categorisation of art as Insider or Outsider Art, the former being the domain of those who belong within accepted, established artistic traditions; the latter, which is also known as Art Brut, being produced by the self-taught and by people who, for a whole raft of reasons, are per-ceived as being on the fringe.

However, Outsider Art has now itself become established and is generally regarded as a vibrant component of contemporary art with galleries and museums across the world holding permanent collections and staging exhibitions. Westbrook’s concept of Neo-Outsider and the intention behind this exhibition is to foster a fully inclusive approach to art whatever its tradition and whoever made it.

The exhibition is comprised of work of more than 20 adult artists and 12 Oxfordshire children and young people. Indeed, the exhibition itself will be part-curated by two of the youngsters.

The pieces are united around the theme of fairytales and a starting point of Once Upon a Time. Fairy tales present an almost infinite world of possibilities and endings: some happy, others darker, and some unresolved.

The youngsters prepared for the show by taking part in multi-media workshops, that have helped them to develop their own fairy tales into expressive masks which form an integral part of the whole exhibition. Of the adult artists, Chris Czainski gives us a truly mythical Dog with Saucer Eyes, sculpted from cement and human hair. And Snow Queen, a commanding bust with feathers for hair, a tiara of faux pearls mounted on the end of large screws and an inscrutable face comprised of a mosaic of mirror fragments.

Other pieces explore a single theme with very different results. In Julia Sisi’s Big Bad Wolf Family, stylised and seemingly benign wolves look longingly towards a distant vulnerable Red Riding Hood as if they hope to provide her with the kind of protection their forebears gave to Romulus and Remus or Mowgli.

In Red Riding Hood, the child appears altogether more calculating; the wolf has disposed of granny, who is depicted imprisoned inside the animal, which in turn carries an expression of clear satisfaction on its face.

Mirror Mirror: Heroes and Villains
The North Wall, Oxford
April 1-11