Epic Museum of Stuff

Today’s adventure was a trip to the V&A museum, which will be the first of many.

My landlady, Alex, is a member of the museum, so she was kind enough to take me as her guest into the ‘Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes’ exhibit for free. The show closes on Sunday so I needed to go see it asap, since Alex recommended it for its costumes. It was really busy, even though we arrived in the morning, which made it hard to navigate (particularly near any of the video screens, which acted like people magnets). And while it was an interesting show, I did feel there were some issues with it.

Without getting too museum nerdy, I felt the layout didn’t allow traffic to flow, which was really obvious given the amount of people at the show. I also felt that while the objects chosen were interesting, there were too many of them. The exhibit was broadly laid out chronologically but within each of the six themes the timeline jumped back and forth. That being said, there were lots of really interesting objects in the show and, with some tweaking, this exhibit could travel quite easily.

The look of the Ballet Russes was bold and visually rich, which on its own creates interesting pieces (no pictures allowed in that gallery, so you’re going to have to take my word for it). The group collaborated with a number of important artists of the time. I just about had a nervous breakdown when I realized a sheet of Plexi was all that separated me from three original Paul Poiret dresses (one of the most important fashion designers from the pre-WWI era). Yet for all the colour, shine, and texture in the exhibit the piece that I fell in love with is a simple, fairy dress from an early productions of ‘Les Sylphides’. Its full skirt is made up of delicate layers of net and is paired with a simple, short-sleeved net bodice with a small set of double wings attached to the back. So romantic. The two huge painted cloth backdrops were also impressive to see. Some of the objects I am talking about can be found here: http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG8019063/Serge-Diaghilev-and-the-Ballets-Russes-Exhibition-to-open-at-the-VandA.html

I spent the afternoon wandering the galleries- literally, since I didn’t grab a map on my way in. I knew that the textile gallery was somewhere on the third floor. In the course of looking for it I stumbled upon a temporary exhibit featuring the original drawings for Peter Rabbit. I also found myself in front of this at one point.

That would be a plaster cast of Trajan’s column.

Once I finally found the textiles area I have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed. It’s off in the far corner and really out of the way. The cases are old-fashioned, the labels haven’t been updated in a long time, and it doesn’t look like it’s rotated much. And the rug section was closed, for reasons that weren’t particularly clear.

However, many of the galleries have some kind of textile featured in them, so I still have plenty of fibre-based exploration for my next visit (but the fashion gallery is closed until next year- boo!).

I highly recommend the cafe in the museum. The food is really good and the tea is excellent- never mind a cup of tea, they give you your own pot of tea that’s good for three cups.

I know it doesn’t look like it from that photo, but that saucer is the size of my hand.

All in all, a good time was had by me. I can’t wait to go back and see the Chinese robes exhibit.