Fairy Tales Gone Wrong (9 Photos vol. 2)

The fairy tales took a wrong turn

Cinderella has a knife behind her back. Snow White turns the prince down, and the gingerbread house is a utility hut on a bike path in Wuppertal. Nine works from Madrid to Lublin where somebody quietly rewrote the ending.

More: Fairy Tales Gone Wrong (8 Photos)

---

🧜‍♀️ “Part of Your World” — By Herr Nilsson in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

The mermaid who collected human junk is now made of it. Ariel’s hair is hoses, and the rest is mobile phones, a vacuum cleaner, a sink, an oil barrel, a car tire and circuit boards, all pulled from the bottom of Lake Mälaren by the clean-up group Rena Mälaren. She stood in front of the Royal Palace as the first piece in Herr Nilsson’s “Clean Street Art” series. One raised hand gives polluters the middle finger, and the other ends in a knife.

💡 Diver Fact: Rena Mälaren was founded by Fredrik Johansson, a former military diver turned social worker. Its unpaid volunteer divers go out every Sunday, and in its first four years the group pulled 174 metric tons of rubbish out of the water.

More: Street Art Pop Culture (21 Photos)

🔗 Follow Herr Nilsson on Instagram

---

🍬 “Knusperhaus” — By MEGX in Wuppertal, Germany 🇩🇪

Hansel and Gretel would have stopped here. Inside is equipment for an underground stormwater basin run by the city utility; outside, Wuppertal artist MEGX painted candy-cane door posts, biscuit shutters and dripping icing. It stands on the Sambatrasse, an old railway line that is now a path for bikes and walkers.

💡 Artist Fact: MEGX, Martin Heuwold, also painted Wuppertal’s “Lego bridges”. In July 2020 he and his team painted the second one, the Regenbogenbrücke, which carries the Schwarzbachtrasse bike and footpath, according to his site.

More: Utility Meters and Concrete Pipes Turned Into Street Art (9 Photos)

📷 Photo: Im Fokus / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

---

😼 The Cheshire Cat Got Out — By SCAF

Wonderland’s grinning cat has grown fangs and is tearing its way out of a cinder-block box. The top-left frame shows the plain block before SCAF started. The figure posing beside it is dressed like Alice, down to the white apron, but wears a respirator.

💡 Artist Fact: SCAF is a self-taught French artist who often paints in abandoned factories. One mural can take him anywhere from two days to a week, and when it is done he steps into the scene himself and poses beside it.

More: 26 Amazing 3D Paintings by SCAF!

🔗 Follow SCAF on Instagram

---

🔪 “Cinderella” — By Herr Nilsson in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

She is in the blue gown and the long gloves, ready for the ball, and holds a kitchen knife behind her back. Midnight might go differently this time. Herr Nilsson broke through in 2013 with “Dark Princesses”, a series in which Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty lurked around Stockholm street corners armed with knives and pistols.

💡 Name Fact: The alias comes from Herr Nilsson, Pippi Longstocking’s pet monkey. His first street piece showed the monkey holding a Molotov cocktail; the artist told The Local the idea was to let a harmless creature act very violently.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsCinderellaHerr Nilsson · 2013 · Stockholm, SwedenDark Princesses seriesArmed with a knife1One of Herr Nilsson’s “Dark Princesses”, Disney heroines armed with knives and guns, reported on Stockholm walls in July 2013.Laughing Squid2Next Nature described Cinderella holding a knife, “ready to attack whoever turns the corner”.Next Nature20135 JulLaughing Squid reports the Dark Princesses201319 JulThe Local interviews the artist201326 JulNext Nature describes CinderellaRead the full file →

More: Street Art Pop Culture (21 Photos)

🔗 Follow Herr Nilsson on Instagram

---

🐺 “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” — By Loup y es tu in Paris, France 🇫🇷

The wolf howls, and Little Red Riding Hood kneels beside him and tips her head back to join in. Nobody is running from anybody. This pair was pasted up on Rue Saint-Blaise in Paris.

💡 Artist Fact: Loup y es tu trained as a cartoonist and began bringing wolves into the streets of Paris in 2019. Since 2020 the artist has regularly worked with Little Chaperon Rouge on a new version of Charles Perrault’s tale, in which Little Red Riding Hood gets her revenge on the wolf by taming him.

More: Wanna Play Hide and Seek With the Wolf? (8 Photos)

🔗 Follow Loup y es tu on Instagram

---

🙅 “Besos de príncipe, NO” — By Unknown Artist in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

In the Disney film, a prince’s kiss wakes her up. This stencil on a Madrid wall answers for her: “Besos de príncipe, NO”, a prince’s kisses, no. The photo’s description on Wikimedia Commons calls it feminist graffiti from 2008.

More: Disney Love

📷 Photo: “Besos de principe no” by Daquella manera / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

---

🧺 Snow White Has Had Enough — By Dav’ in Lyon, France 🇫🇷

Basket on her arm, spray can in her hand. Snow White has stopped being polite and written her opinion of the Queen on the wall in big letters, and the opinion is not printable here. Dav’ put her up on a wall in Lyon.

More: Disney Love

🔗 Follow Dav’ on Instagram

---

🕳️ “No Need to Follow the White Rabbit” — By Dav’ in Lyon, France 🇫🇷

Alice is not going down the rabbit hole today. The White Rabbit lies at her feet in a red smear, and the words beside her explain the rest. Dav’ stenciled it in Lyon in 2016.

More: No Need To Follow The White Rabbit

🔗 Follow Dav’ on Instagram

---

⏱️ Wonderland’s Rabbit Has Lost His Patience — By Maciej Kidaj in Lublin, Poland 🇵🇱

He is still late, and he has stopped being nice about it. Kidaj’s White Rabbit snarls with orange eyes, his fist clenched next to a pocket watch that is melting off its chain. It runs along a wall below a parking-lot fence in Lublin.

More: Fairy Tales Come to Life (7 Photos)

🔗 Follow Maciej Kidaj on Instagram