Sunday 29 January 2012

Alice In Wonderland....

So the other day SP pal Alison informed me of an Alice In Wonderland exhibition at Tate Liverpool, only problem was it was coming to an end this weekend. So yesterday Alison, her significant other and myself (Kandy was busy helping at an SSRG roller derby bout) headed off to Liverpool.
The exhibition started on the ground floor with a few contemporary works inspired by the Alice stories. The only one that sticks in my mind is a series of neon light words hanging from the ceiling, from what we could gather these were just slang terms for vagina. It was incredibly 90s!

Then up to the 4th floor. The main room (or what I would call it, was a little bit confusing, no literature, cuts and going green meant lack of!) seemed to be more of a history of Lewis Carroll, with paintings by, of and inspired by him, photographs he took, pictures of the Liddell sisters (Alice and her two siblings).
To the left of that room, was probably my favourite part, original illustrations from the books, a collection of all the different illustrated books over the years and best of all original Alice MERCH!
Now Lewis Carroll was my kinda guy, he knew about merchandise, wooden toys, playing cards,
crockery!
Back in the main room, towards the end, was a collection of works by European surrealists with work loosely inspired by Alice. Which flowed into the next room with a collection of works by British surrealists.
What looked really amazing were a selection of films, that were in a small room off a corridor, which was obviously always busy and our hungry stomachs just couldn't sit it out, shame. So onto the next room which had selection of works from pop artists like Peter Blake and other works from the 60s/70s. One of my favourites were the three pieces from Adrian Piper:
There was also a collection of Alice inspired books, including a sci-fi one (that I want to read!) and this:
We headed on to look at more recent works which featured all sorts, paintings, illustrations, sculptures. A stand out piece for me was this etching (that I am useless and can't remember the artists name!)
We finished off and headed to the gift shop, where we we good and didn't spend a mint (lots of nice, but expensive things and who doesn't make badges?!?!).
Then left, feeling slightly cheated, but unsure as to why. The exhibition both not what we pictured, but then if we hadn't have gone, it would have been the raddest, weirdest, most psychedelic exhibition we never did see.
We stuffed our faces with the world's largest cheese on toast and the happy balance was restored!

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