Metamorphic Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Adriana Peliano published by Zahar in 2015

 comments by Semper Lux*

source on instagram @semperluxus

In this artistic alchemy Peliano takes Tenniel's original illustrations & transforms them into a marvelous game using surrealistic collages to emphasize the enigmas of Carroll's text:

 

"Her collages & metamorphic assemblages are magical & multiple inventories, where logic is reinvented with new meanings & narratives, creating language games & dream labyrinths. Everything is transformed to tell new stories that dislocate our way of seeing"

 

1: Cover: Alice in her yellow "Nursery Alice" dress tells the cards "vade retro, Satana". Hatter spins out of control bottom left

 

 

2: Rabbit disappears into the dream spiral rabbit hole. The big upside-down eyes belong to the opera singer Lina Cavalieri, "Venus on Earth", renowned as the world's most beautiful woman. Her classic beauty served as a perfect canvas & was made iconic by the Italian artist Piero Fornasetti

 

 

3: Alice sees the enchanted Garden, which is the famous Flammarion engraving, a metaphorical illustration of the Quest for Knowledge

 

 

4: The transformation of Alice through drink recalls the story of the Hindu god Krishna whose skin turned blue when he drank the poisoned milk of the demoness Putana

 

 

 

5: Alice stretches like a Tower of Pisa cosmic telescope. Behind her are the “Cheshire Cat” group of galaxies, named because of their smiling cat-like appearance

 

 

6: René Magritte's "Shéhérazade", whose pearl-tears fill the Pool of Tears

 

 

7: Alice growing inside Rabbit's house puts her in an impossible situation, perfectly illustrated by the impossible Penrose triangle of the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd, celebrated for images which cannot exist as solid objects

 

8: Caterpillar's head is a reversible face by Rex Whistler, based on Japanese 上下絵 Joge-e images.

The two waterpipes are from Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights"

 

9: Tea Party is doubly topsy turvy, with Salvador Dalí's melted clocks from "Persistence of Memory"

 

 

10: Inside a huge all-seeing eye is Dalí's Lobster Telephone: "I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, I am never served a cooked telephone"

 

 

 

STORIES:

 

* Semper Lux is an enigmatic entity, witty collector and presenter of precious and supercalifragilistic illustrated books, with a great  research and full of unsuspected references, travel guide to whimsical worlds.

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