Archive for September, 2009

Sep 26

Fantastical furniture at V&A Telling Tales exhibition

Supposedly taking its inspiration from “the spirit of story-telling” the free Telling Tales design exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum is well worth a visit before it’s packed up on 18 October.

Taking up a small space near the main entrance of the museum, the exhibition is divided into three sections – ‘The Forest Glade’, ‘The Enchanted Castle’, and ‘Heaven and Hell’, featuring intriguing, appealing, appalling and entertaining objects from a range of designers. Each apparently “tells a tale through their use of decorative devices, historical allusions or choice of materials, sharing common themes such as fantasy, parody and a concern with mortality.”

It’s difficult to pin down the thread running through the collection, but I loved it. It was gorgeous and grim and quite otherwordly, and UNCANNY in huge neon flashing letters, so right up my street. Perhaps the best I can do is link to a few of my favourite pieces to give you a flavour:

Linen Cupboard-House – I just wanted to climb inside!

‘Smoke’ Mirror – A mirror with a deliberately charred and blackened frame, which is surprisingly evocative.

‘Moulded Mole’ Slippers – I think the artistic merit / craft credentials of these are less clear, but I’m a sucker for taxidermy.

I’d also recommend taking a peek at the Princess Chair, the pig’s skull teapot, and the ‘Lover’s Rug’, which still makes me feel a bit queasy. There was a good mix of highly desirable objects, and thought-provoking items which were closer to art in the way it is normally understood, and clever things had been done with a very small exhibition space.

The themes seemed to break down a bit towards the end, but there was plenty to mull over. Here’s a video by the curator and others explaining some of the ideas behind the exhibition, and if you want to find out more about fairytales (and what sort of empty-souled person doesn’t?) you can hand over £45 for a study day linked to the exhibition on Sat 3 October.

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Posted in Art, Craft, London, Magic n that, Museum, Stories

Sep 03

In the alley

Just had one of those strange moments when you see something perfectly normal in a way which makes it seem a little alien, and you have a feeling that it belongs to somewhere else, and you are just peering through at it. Do you know what I mean? I think it happens a lot in cities, I guess because of all the lives running around each other, and over and through and under each other in the same small spaces. It’s something a lot of people have explored, from mad Gustav Meyrink in The Golem to lovely Neil Gaiman in Neverwhere.

But anyway – I was walking up Leytonstone High Road, past the church, and the Matalan and Shoeworld and the Petch Sayam thai restaurant. At night the whole street and all the buildings are sodium orange coloured because of the streetlights, and there are always people around. Tonight there were some people smoking outside the pub, and a woman on the phone at the bus stop, all lit up and noisy and busy. As I walked past the restaurant I turned and looked down the alley beside it, and it was as if I had casually glanced into some parallel world.

The noise faded suddenly as I turned my head away from the street, and the shadows in the alley looked dark inky blue, with moonlight pouring into the courtyard at the end of it. There was a black man standing with his back to me, in a pale t-shirt, obviously quite muscular, and he was holding a wooden broom and slowly twirling it around himself, around his back and over his head. Effortlessly, “like a ninja!” I thought, but it occurs to me now I have no idea if ninjas actually do this.

Anyhow, the moment left me with a strong impression of one of the lives running close beside mine, entirely different, and invisible to me. As soon as I was past the alley the shouting orange street came back to me with a rush and for a second I wondered if I should step back to see whether he had vanished.

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Posted in London, Random, Stories