Alice in Wonderland for me is essentially about connoting the mysterious, surreal and thought provoking knee jerk reactions. I love Lewis Carroll's imagination and the way in which you are able to relate to Alice in her growing and learning through the two books.
The exhibition at the Tate, Liverpool was lack lustre and didn't evoke a magical transition from room to room. Their was no use of interactive features, lighting was bright and overhead, room layout was restrictive in atmosphere with more attention being paid to the history of Lewis Carroll and Charles L.Hodgson, illustrator. It evoked an educative, informative experience but by doing this it lost its imagination therefore essence of the book.
The exhibition leads to work by Surrealism artists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and Roland Penrose. I can see the relation between surrealism art and Alice in Wonderland but for me it didn't flow cohesively as the Alice in Wonderland part of the exhibition was mundane and controlled compared to the paintings which have an air of fascination of the uncanny and strange, which should be connoted throughout the exhibition.
Bill Woodrow 1987 sculpture, 'Humpty Fucking Dumpy,' added a comical and light hearted touch. It allows the viewer to re-connect with their earlier child hood stories in a juxtaposed twist of new meanings which are connoted from the sculpture against the original motif of the child hood story.The final stages of the exhibition represent the transgression to 'Alice through the looking glass,' and is designed through its use of perspex clear boxes in which viewer can sit within, and mirrored walls with quotes shown on to directly question yourself in a self reflecting manner.
Overall I feel that the exhibition was unsuccessful in what I feel to be its aim of representing the mysterious and uncanny world of Alice in Wonderland. Instead I find the start of the exhibition to be too informative in its display contents and display layout. the surrealism art displayed is the only part of the exhibition that allowed me a 3D conceptual experience which I expected when visiting an Alice in Wonderland theme exhibition.
Everything begins with an end ....
