Alice: curiouser and curiouser

Stunning exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the Alice books and how they have inspired artists since they were published.

This show got a good balance between style and substance. It was a very modern design with lots of installations like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party shown here which helped to space out the show for a post-Covid age but there was also heaps of archive material described in detail. At some points even I felt there might be too many facts, such as sheet music for a peace inspired by Wonderland by Tolkien’s Great uncle!

The show started by telling the story of how the books were written, from Dodgson telling the story to the Alice Liddell and her sisters on a boat trip, though John Tenniel’s illustrations and various editions of the work. This went hand in hand with displays on how the book reflected the Victorian era being published just six years after “Origin of the Species” and five years before the 1870 Education Act.

Next was a fascinating section on filming the stories including clips from two silent versions with strange but fun special effects and lots of loans from the Disney archive and costume and stills from the Tim Burton film. This led into how the story have influenced art with surrealist work including an illustrated version of the book by Dali.

Next a Virtual Reality installation which I passed on but it was in a room with examples of where Alice had been used in political cartoons. Finally through to theatre productions including costumes from the recent National Theatre version and then on to how fashion designers had responded to the stories and illustrations.

I staggered out exhausted but with a head full of wonder!

Closes 31 December 2021


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