Making photographs, to me, is really a kind of dream state. As you tour your imagination, you want to photograph what you are seeing... but the only way you can do this is by really utterly, absolutely, passionately firmly believing. - Tim Walker
To the V&A to see Wonderful Things, a terrific exhibition of Tim Walker's fashion and portrait photography. There had been a fairly comprehensive retrospective of his work 7 years ago at Somerset House (here), which included some of the outsized props he employs to give the illusion of magic, fantasy and surrealism, all trademarks which exemplify his work. This exhibition though is a slightly different beast which still features some of those wonderful props but focuses on a personal selection of objects from the V&A's vast collection to which Walker was invited to respond to in his own inimitable way. He has called in favours from muses of the likes of Grace Jones, Tilda Swinton et al to create an exciting body of work which breathes new life and interpretations into the pictures and objects he has selected. I enjoyed the theatricality of the staging of the different areas of the exhibtion, where each object/picture has been given its own distinct space to relate a narrative through Walker's photographs. There is also a foray into the moving image by Walker with short film - The Steadfast Tin Soldier, his homo-erotic re-telling of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, which can be found upstairs in the V&A's Photography galleries.
The Dream Department
"Fashion photography is the dream department of photography. When you're a fashion photographer, everything is an illusion from the start".
Chapel of Nudes
"The nude has been eternally inspiring to artists, but its a subject I've only started to photograph in recent years. We are all exquisite beings nude and that's something I want to celebrate".
Wonderful Things
Illuminations
"I love vibrant, transparent colour - Christmas lights, sweet wrappers, the red lightbulb in a photographic darkroom... Translucent colour provokes an immediate emotional in me and is central to this photoshoot".
Tobias and Sara on their Wedding Night, ca. 1520
Death as a Drummer - Joachim Henne, about 1670
"Throughout history, Death is frequently depicted as a personnified force or skeleton... This figure was created as a reminder of the unstoppable drumming of Death summoning everyone to their inevitable end. This drummer looks less like the Grim Reaper, and more like a wild, joyful dancer - encapsulated in my photos of Grace Jones".
Pen and Ink
Aubrey Beardsley - The Peacock Skirt, 1893
"I've always been seduced by the inky blackness, confidence and eroticism of Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations.... When I saw the prints close up, I could visualise them as
photographs immediately".
Cloud 9
Chess Set, about 1790
"Exploring
the V&A's historical paintings from South Asia reminded me of how I
feel when I'm in that part of the world. I've always been drawn to
India..."
Box of Delights
Embroidered casket (about 1675)
"We all have a need to store our secrets in a private world that we love. The embroidered box in this room feels like an expression of that need... It suggests a world in which you can safely be whoever you want to be. James Spencer bursts out of his family home and into that world dressed as a beautiful woman..."
Chamberlain's key (about 1680)
Court Mantua, 1755-60
Lil' Dragon
Snuffbox about 1745, gold mounts about 1800
"The museum has a dazzling collection of intricately decorated snuffboxes. As soon as I saw this one with a dragon on it, I visualised the empress walking her pet dragon at night and picking a flower that only blooms at full moon..."
The Land of Living Men
"I'm fascinated by the spectrum of masculinity in all its glorious manifestations. The V&A collection includes diverse representations of the male nude. The title is from an 1891 novel by William Morris displayed in the museum's British Galleries".
Fig Leaf for David, (about 1857)
Museum legend goes that this fig leaf was created for the plaster cast of Michelangelo's David because Queen Victoria was shocked by the nudity. The leaf was fixed to the figure before each royal visit to the museum until the 20th century.
Michelangelo - David, V&A Cast Courts
Handle With Care
"These pictures are a love letter to the conservators, curators, and archivists at the museum. The work they do is vital. Without their sensitivity and care, there would quite simply be nothing here. seeing the dress by Alexander McQueen exquisitely wrapped up at the V&A's Clothworker's Centre, it became a beautiful ghost."
Why Not Be Oneself?
"The poet Dame Edith Sitwell had a striking personal style and was incerdibly photogenic, especially in her later years... Her flamboyant wardrobe included brocade robes velvet gowns, turbans and golden shoes. For this series of portraits, actor Tilda Swinton a distant relative of Edith's inhabited the role of the poet".
Sitwell's gold bag and fabulous shoes
Soldiers Of Tomorrow
The Bayeux Tapestry - 1873, Cundall & Co.
"Among the 800,000 photographs in the V&A collection is one that measures 65 metres long. It's the biggest photograph I've ever seen, and it depicts the Bayeux Tapestry, an object that's always fascinated me. It inspired me to produce photographs that evoke both the chaos and beauty of the tapestry".
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things
until 8th March
Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London
SW7
