Recently I visited two exhibitions in Somerset House London. Tim
Walker Story Teller & Valentino, Master of Couture. The Tim Walker
exhibition was everything I had hoped it would be. Each room contained a quote
from Walker written in all sorts of directions, descending from the top of the
walls. “Really I only photograph what I truly love”, it’s evident that the
photographer loves all things fairy-tale like & theatrical. The exhibition
was filled with past works from editorials to portraits. What really fascinated
me were the displays of the props that had been previously used by Walker in
his shoots. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Tim Walker he is most
known for his use of oversized props, creating fictitious story lines with each
shot.
The layout of the exhibition for me was well presented,
keeping you enticed throughout. With Tim Walker, Story Teller you wouldn't
necessarily need to be a lover of fashion to enjoy it as it focusses on his
concepts as a photographer. As Tim Walker said himself; “The creation of
fictive worlds & parallel lives is the stuff of photography”.
Some photos & quick sketches:
Valentino Master of Couture for me was the least favourable of the
two exhibitions. Although it can’t be denied that Valentino has been making exquisite
garments since the 1950’s the exhibition lacked excitement & a ridiculous
amount of creativity. When entering the first room there was an immediate anti –
climax compared to the bright, jovial exhibition I had just come out of. I have
put into consideration that the Valentino brand stands for elegant, sophisticated
couture however I do believe this is no excuse for a dull atmosphere. The first
room contained letters, cards etc. to Valentino from various industry
professional such as Anna Wintour, whilst others appeared completely pointless
for example a Christmas card from Prince Charles!
The most memorable room was “The Catwalk” on each side it
had mannequins some seated, others standing behind a rope whilst spectators (the
public) walked down the middle. Empty seats next to the mannequins had paper
with names of celebrities written on them to give the effect of a runway. In my
opinion this layout was unimaginative. The garments on the models, although
extremely well made didn’t intrigue me & weren’t grouped together by
collection or year which made the set up quite odd looking.
My favourite part of the exhibition was a section which
showed examples & videos on various techniques used by Valentino with
fabrics e.g. ‘Pagine’. This is using disks of organze silk piled to create a
page effect.
All in all I wasn’t a massive fan of the Valentino exhibition but would strongly recommend Tim Walker, Story Teller to anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment