‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ at the V&A

My wonderful friend Vanessa and I started a bookclub last year in the middle of lockdown 1.0 and, one of the books we added to our ever growing list was Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Long story short, we both loved the magic and mystery of the book, the adventurous meanderings of wonderland as Alice navigates the Mad Hatters Tea Party and the Queen of Hearts. Everything about that book was utterly charming and well worth the read, so it was to my delight that after all the lockdowns and uncertainty surrounding arts institutions that The Victoria and Albert Museums would open their doors and once more and that their crowning exhibition of 2021 was ‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’. Which is what I went to see last week ;)

The opening room is all about the backstory, how did Alice and Wonderland come in to conception? Well there a lot to it, one of the most stunning examples was the early us of photography. Because it took forever to take a picture, the subjects of that photograph had to remain very still, as such Caroll worked this to his advantage. In his photograph, pictured below, called ‘The Dream’ he was able to have a child sleeping whilst these other characters appear as manifestations, like ghosts. As much as Carroll was a creative visionary he was also a literary one, in early school reports its days that he adored word play! And it was these two key ingredients that led to the invention of Alice and Wonderland.

It took a while for the book to be published, initially the story was told to some children whilst on a trip down the river thames to Oxford in the company of some children, one of whom was called Alice. She begged him to write it down as a souvenir. It wasn’t until a few yers later that it was published and the book became immensely popular.

Walking around the exhibition, one of my personal favourite things was seeing the original drawings done by John Tenniel, unfortunately due to copyright reasons I wasn’t allowed to photograph them for this article but I could take pictures of the original proofs, and there was a whole album of them on display! They’re done as wood engravings and some of the most charming ones actually came from the next instalment of Alice in Wonderland, obviously known as ‘Through the Looking Glass’ the ones of ‘The Walrus and The Carpenter’ and “Tweedledum and Tweedledee’ were marvellous to see and some of my favourite things at the exhibition.

But my ultimate favourite thing was there VR experience, now I have never done VR before so this was a real treat for me to try. It was incredible, it was all around me and 3D. You fall down the rabbit hole whilst Alice narrates your journey down before finding yourself in the room with the small door so you have to have the ‘Drink Me’ bottle before playing croquet with the queen! I must say it was rather hard to try and grab objects, it took many attempts but it was so much fun and really well executed (if you pardon the pun). The equipment is thoroughly cleaned before and after you use the VR goggles, so it is covid safe! There was also a lot of satire based around Alice and Wonderland. It has been used to create everything from playing cards to political imaginings, see the below image of Theresa May. They’re interesting to say the least.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before Brexit”

In terms of the execution and curatorship of their exhibition, I loved the fact that it was for both adult and children alike. Children can hunt for the white rabbit that’s around the exhibition and watch snippets of all the films that it has been turned into. For the adults there was a lot of information about the history of Alice and costume design and the science of brining Alice and Wonderland to the big screen. Costume and design is where the V&A really know how to flex their muscles, the set design was charming! The design of the Mad Hatters Tea Party and the projection design of the Cheshire Cat was really cool and brilliantly done.

Just what you expect from the V&A design and curatorial team. This exhibition is wonderfully multi-faceted in that respect. This exhibition ticks all the right boxes, its perfect for children and adults and its a great way to spend a few hours, especially as its been so rainy recently. My only criticism of the exhibition lies in the number of people admitted, it didn’t really feel like we were socially distancing and some of the spaces were small! But everyone was wearing masks and were very respectful of each other!

So come on, fall down the rabbit hole, you’re in for a wonderful ride and one only the V&A is capable of doing.

‘Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser’ is on at the V&A until December 31st 2021