Welcome back to another day of updates, which I have to admit are late, as I needed to spend some time formatting or writing up drafts, anywho while contently stalking looking at my cousin’s posts, I spotted an invite for an Alice in Wonderland event, which takes place at the British Library, for those that are not certain on where that’s located it’s at St Pancras. The event was set for the celebration of Alice’s 150th birthday, and it was such an intruiging surprise, too. They had displayed these mirror stands right next to some HUUUGE cutout illustrated panels that portray scenes from the tale; this I found to particularly interesting because if you were to look at it from the side, or on an angle, you may be able to see the image reflected off it, and yes, you may of thought as you read this, ‘Uh, duh.’. Well, there’s more to why I found this out to be both rewarding and clever. There’s a small link to one of Alice’s other stories: ‘Through the looking glass’. It’s subtle, but I have to applaud whoever co-ordinated the displays and such. The way it has been done is very effective, and brings the illustration on the panel to life.
As I write about this, I can refer this back to what’s been mentioned in CCS. Giving things context, or how the museum has given context to a particular object. I need to always keep this in mind, when I’m observing things in future, other wise, I won’t be able to move forward, or learn how to give my own object or artwork context. I wasn’t able to get a photograph of the, but I did scrawl down a brief draft of what this display looked like.
Speaking of displays and cameras; no one was allowed to take any photographs of the event, but that didn’t stop me from taking a quick shot of one of the signs.
I had set myself a task of documenting as many drawings and notes as possible. I had to keep in mind about how each artist/designer has portrayed a particular character, or scene? how did they do it? what mediums did they use? has the museum/library reflected or help give context to it?
Observing the things they had on display, they had put in some thought by only selecting specific things, or broadcasting it in a form of a timeline of when the pieces were created, for example, they had all of the Disney’s Alice in wonderland things contained in one display, while another illustrated set, or book with some cards or anything related to the one person who designed it was kept in another display.
Looking back on this visit that I made about two weeks ago, I was quite happy with how they presented the lifetime and dedication to this particular tale about a girl. Actually, I’m also quite surprised with how old the story is, and how it’s managed to last this long, if you take in to account that not long ago, they had released an Alice related film in 2013 and now, they’re planning to make another one. It’s pretty much still relevant to our time and can be enjoyed.
Shaih-Marie Sedeno 