Telling Tales Exhibition

At

The Victoria and Albert Museum

After having a lecture on how to set up a blog we had to go the new exhibition “Telling Tales” at the Victoria and Albert Museum where we would get set 6 Questions to answer at the exhibition and then upload them onto our blog.

Telling Tales exhibition showcases furniture, lighting and ceramic designs in the spirit of story telling, here are the works by a new generation of international designers, notably from the Netherlands, many of whom are under 40!

Question No 1.

What is your immediate feeling on entering the gallery and seeing the works? Is the work compelling, repelling, beautiful, confusing, moving, inspiring, strange or familiar?

When arriving into the exhibition I did not know what to expect. However when I entered into the room I could hear magical birds tweeting away in the music I looked around and each piece of furniture was an amazing piece of work.

There was some very strange work and pieces of furniture but to me that made the exhibition, as with out them it could have been very dull just looking at beautiful pieces of art.

Some of the work was also very creepy which made it seem exciting, as it was something to talk about during and after the exhibition.

Question No 2.

Chose a piece of work from each section “The Forest Glade”, “The Enchanted Castle” and “Haven and Hell” and list the feelings and response that the work generated in you and why.

Heaven and Hell:

The piece of work that really caught my eye in this section of the exhibition was the Moleskin slippers. These are by Niels Van Elyke and Minan Van Der Lubbe both born in the Netherlands.

I found these slippers really interesting, and what garbed my attention was the caption below them.

“ Moles are caught as pets, but here their fur had been used to make luxurious slippers. The designers invite us to question our attitudes to fur. It is a contest material in both fashion and design- for some luxury material, for others a product of cruelty to animal. “

This really made me question the slippers. The first thoughts that where coming to my head when I saw this piece of work was-

-Shocking

-Evil

-Cruel

All these words that came to my head straight away related to Hell and showed the complete opposite to heaven I think the main reason for this is because the art work is showing a death, not a natural death but a cruel one as someone would have killed these moles to make the slippers.

The Enchanted Castle:

In this section the piece that caught my eye was "Robber Baron- Jewel Safe" by Job Smeets and Nyke Tynagel.

The words that first came to my mind when I saw this was

-Cheeky

-Polished

-Disguised

I thought this work was very clever the way the safe was disguised; this makes the piece very magical and secretive as no one would ever know that it is used for something. What I loved about it was the use of color and the shiny surface of the piece.

The clown had been painted beautifully and then varnished so you just wanted to touch it.

The Forest Glade:

In the last section of the exhibition I loved all the furniture, I really thought it all related to the title of this section but the piece that really stood out was “Petit Jardin” chair by Tord Boontye also born in the Netherlands.

Looking at this the first thing that came to my head was

-Elegant

-Delicate

-Precious

-Magical

All of these words really relate to the furniture as it’s so exquisite and looks so delicate I really think it relates to the forest glade as the laser cutting is so intricate and magical making it look like a wild jungle.

Question No 3.

Notice the display of the objects, their relationship to each other and their lighting. How might these evoke feelings of drama, interest and tension?

In the “Forest Glade’ there was magical music playing of birds singing and tweeting which made the section of the exhibition seem wild an =d untouched. To divide the furniture they used forest twigs and the lighting was done in spot light. On each piece of furniture a spot light would be shining showing shadows where needed and reflecting patterns around them making it look like natural lighting trying to get through all the tree branches above trying to create a real forest effect so everywhere else around the room was dark apart from the spot lights on the furniture.

“Enchanted Castle” had mirrors around the room making an elusion, as every object was shiny, sharp edged and clean. They all showed reflection and richness, the room was a lot darker but the spot lights on each object was very sharp, clear and brighter than in the “Forest Glade”.

The Music in the Room was upbeat. On one section of the room was classic wallpaper showing tradition and boldness. The layout of the room and furniture is set like a sitting room and the colors are all well thought out having the dark furniture in the center and the lighter on either sides.

“Heaven and Hell” this room was very different to the other two sections. The room was angled like a tunnel. Going into Hell the section had red light above head and the object had a white spotlight on them and everywhere else was black so you could only see the object making it seem very creepy as you don’t know what else is around.

Question No 4.

How might these inspire aspects of your table theatre?

What inspired and gave me ideas for my table theatre from looking at this exhibition was the collection of pieces that where gathered together for each section and related to each title. This then gave me ideas on how to present my table theatre and what I could create with the collection. It also made me think about materials and colors as at the exhibition each category was made very clear, from the use of color to the use of material. For example in the Forest Glade section a lot of the furniture was made from woods relating it to the forests and woods.

Question No 5.

Take Notice of the title of the exhibition and choose to analyze and discuss under 300 words.

The title of the Exhibition ‘Telling Tales’ is a interesting title as its makes you question what the exhibition is about and what story it is going to be telling.

When I read further about the exhibition and found out it had three sections named ‘The Forest Glade’ ‘The Enchanted Castle’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’ I felt they connected to the title and made it clearer.

When I think of the title ‘Telling Tales’ to me I think tales means a short story, a enchanted story, for example Beatrice Potter, as to me I always knew Peter Rabbit as a short tale or Winny the Poo. So this then made me assume that the exhibition is made up of short exciting stories to be told. All of these stories are tales, made up of fantasies that got children like me excited and gripped, which suggest that this exhibition could be full of gripping story’s that cannot be missed.

Question No 6.

Which designers or pieces particularly caught your imagination and / or inspires you?

Picture

‘Do you hear what I hear?’ by Kelly Mccllum was defiantly my favorite piece out of the entire exhibition; it will be a piece that will not be forgotten in a long time.

The fox inspired me as I loved the gold shiny maggots coming out of the fox’s ears. I love the fact it has been taxi durmeed to look alive but actually it is very much dead not only because it is not moving but it has wiggly maggots coming out of its which suggests death as they are eating the fox’s insides. This is a real show of heaven and hell, which works well as, that’s the category the piece is showcased in.

I also love the fact the maggots are so shiny that they are gleaming in the bright spot light, they are also gold in color suggesting richness, heaven maybe yet they are eating something dead.

This has really inspired me as I think its so clever, to the use of color and the way the fox is positioned everything about it is a very clever piece of art.