Zo, Kiran Kandola, Firpal, Yusuf, Ravyanshi Mehta, Jeenu Mahadevan, Chawntell Kulkami, & Radhika Nair | Fashion: Marni, Paolina Russo, Missoni, Ahluwalia Studio, Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Lou Dallas | Pershore, Worcestershire, 2018
Come September, the V&A will open the doors to “Wonderful Things”: British photographer Tim Walker’s largest exhibition to date, celebrating his some 25-year career bringing his singular, fantastical vision to life. For the comprehensive show, Walker drew inspiration from the cultural wellspring that is the V&A’s collections like sixteenth-century stained glass, the V&A’s textiles, Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations from 1890, Edith Sitwell’s clothing and jewelry work, McQueen’s 2009 The Horn of Plenty collection and more from the museums 145 galleries to create 10 new projects, to be included in addition to a multitude of other works and ephemera. “To me, the V&A has always been a palace of dreams – it’s the most inspiring place in the world. The museum’s collection is so wide and eclectic, and I think that’s why it resonates with me so much. Many of the objects that I saw during my research at the museum made my heart swell and I wanted to try to create a photograph that would relate not only to the physical presence and beauty of that object, but also to my emotional reaction to it,” Walker said of “Wonderful Things”, continuing, “Each new shoot is a love letter to an object from the V&A collection, and an attempt to capture my encounter with the sublime.”
The Peacock Skirt, Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), 1894 | Line block print on Japanese vellum paper | The V&A collection | © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
You don’t simply put on an enterprise this massive, or this Walker-sized, without a trusted collaborator, and for that, Shona Heath, who has a 20-year history with the photographer, can be attributed with designing the exhibition. The creative director and set designer, worked alongside Walker and the V&A’s curator of photographs, Susanna Brown, who curated a single vision tying together so many individual elements like objects from the V&A, sets, props, scrapbooks and sketches, that already respectively have individual narratives; meaning this was no easy task. “We started discussing this project back in 2015 and it’s been a marvellous journey. Tim embarked on a sustained exploration of the museum and many V&A colleagues helped to spark his imagination by unlocking our collection stores and sharing the fascinating stories behind the objects with him,” Brown said. Tickets will be on sale June 13th of this year and Tim Walker: Wonderful Things will run from September 2019 to March 8th, 2020.
For more information vist vam.ac.uk
Duckie Thot, Aubrey’s shadow | Fashion: Saint Laurent London | 2017
Karen Elson, Sgaire Wood & James Crewe | Fashion: The Row, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vacarello, Daniela Geraci, Sarah Bruylant hat, Molly Goddard | London, 2018
