Spin a Tale is a 3D installation featuring modern storytelling tools to depict multiple iterations of an old Malay fairy tale, The Devouring Rock. It is a well-known story from the Malay culture, also known as Batu Belah, Batu Bertangkup. The Devouring Rock shares about sharing our blessings, respecting the elderly, and how having greed for food turns into a tragedy.

 

By revisiting traditional storytelling devices such as the zoetrope, praxinoscope and phenakistoscope, this work aims to provide the audience with a range of storylines and invite personal reflection and interpretation of how the story should go about—to keep the cyclic process of retelling fairy tales. The interactive element is also present to support the artist’s aim metaphorically, where for instance, if the Lady Susan is not spinning and the still images of the story are not moving, the story stays still—preventing it from moving with the passing of our time in the modern-day.