Secrets of the Museum features Alice Liddell (and V and A booking now open)

Tonight BBC will air an episode of the documentary series Secrets of the Museum which will feature Alice Liddell.

The museum’s enormous stores contain many extraordinary collections, but one of its most prized is a treasure trove of early photographs. Curator Kate is interested in photographs taken by Lewis Carroll for a new exhibition about Alice in Wonderland. The Alice of the book was based on a real person, and now Kate has invited in her great granddaughter, Vanessa Tait, to help her chose photographs of her great-grandmother for the exhibition.

I will hopefully give my thoughts on this in the next few days.

Today booking has opened for the V and A Alice exhibition in London in June, which is an extension of ACMI's Wonderland exhibition (with more added) 

Photomontage I made in 2018 to celebrate ACMI's Alice is Everywhere film festival.

Alice Is Everywhere explores many cinematic wonderlands — from the Land of Oz and Coney Island to 1970s Paris and Beat-era San Francisco — but also peeks behind the looking glass, into the wonderland of cinema itself. In many of these films, cinema is a ‘rabbit hole’; a portal into the imaginary and the unknown. To make new fictions, to keep stories afloat, requires a good deal of dexterity and imagination — famous attributes of Alice and her creator Lewis Carroll, whose spirit of adventure and inventiveness is observable across this season. In the opening scene of the wildly inventive Celine and Julie, a green-feathered rabbit’s tail coaxes us into the film’s fantastic world of fiction and of fiction-making. Improvisation and discovery also imbue the early American independent films featured in this program, such as Little Fugitive, with its eyes open to the world, and the rough-and-ready Flower Thief. The curiosity of a young girl, which takes a dark turn in Svankmajer’s uncanny Czech stop-motion films, is tenderly observed and made pliant to worldly experience in Alice in the Cities. Dreamlands are triumphantly realised in The Wizard of Oz and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders — works which show the relationship between the highly imaginative and the ultra-sensory, and how fantasies can colour and become the world. Desperately Seeking Susan followed Celine and Julie’s feathered boa down the rabbit hole. This program hopes that you’ll step inside too

Am planning on doing this with the Amsterdam festival. 

Everything coming to V and A's Alice exhibition that we know so far...

This week V and A museum in London unveiled the first batch of confirmed exhibits which will be part of their massive Alice retrospective exhibition in June 2020.

Here's a list of everything we know so far. 

Of course I must add as a disclaimer that all this is subject to change. 

NOTES:

The name of the exhibition has now changed twice. It is now called "Alice: curiouser and curiouser". It is still not known if this is the final name for the exhibition.

As far as I know this is still ACMI's Wonderland but with LOTS of added things for London. 

With that out of the way...

CONFIRMED

• Charles Dodgson's manuscripts (Probably AAUG, possibly letters as well) 

• National Art Gallery prints of John Tenniel's Alice (only AAIW confirmed at moment, probably will feature TTLG too)

• An Old Woman (Ugly Duchess) print Quinten Massys. 

• Photographs of Alice Liddell (Julia Margret Cameron confirmed, Charles Dodgson will likely feature too)

• Tim Walker and Annie Leibovitz fashion photography. Fashion by Iris van Herpen. 

• Japanese clothing 

• Stage costumes and designs, Christopher Wheeldon's AAIW ballet confirmed. 

• Section on surrealism and 1960s psychedelia featuring Max Ernst, Peter Blake, Salvador Dalí, Yayoi Kusama,  Joseph McHugh and Ralph Steadman.

• Music section on the Beatles. 

• Massive film section: 1951 and 2010 concept art confirmed (more to come?) 

References:

Association, P. (2019, November 28). Curators promise 'mind-bending' Alice In Wonderland exhibition. Retrieved from https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/entertainment/curators-promise-mind-bending-alice-in-wonderland-exhibition/.

Cowan, K. (2019, November 28). Take a mind-bending trip down the rabbit hole at the V&A, as it celebrates Alice in Wonderland. Retrieved from https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser-the-vas-landmark-exhibition-in-2020-will-celebrate-one-of-the-most-iconic-and-inspiring-stories-of-our-time/.

Mattfromlondon. (2019, November 30). V&A's Alice In Wonderland Exhibition Will Take You Down A Rabbit Hole Into A Magical World. Retrieved from https://londonist.com/london/v-a-alice.

Mitchell, B., Peake, T., & Super Nintendo World Universal Studios Japan. (2019, November 29). V&A unveils immersive Alice in Wonderland exhibition for 2020. Retrieved from https://blooloop.com/news/va-alice-wonderland-curiouser-exhibition/.

Time Out London. (2019, August 1). Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser: V&A: Museums in London. Retrieved from https://www.timeout.com/london/museums/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser.

Time Out London. (2019, August 1). Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser: V&A: Museums in London. Retrieved from https://www.timeout.com/london/museums/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser.

First extra from New Zealand's Wonderland exhibit: Christmas Parties!

(Image via TePapa, originally by ACMI)

The first extra from the New Zealand tour version of ACMI's Wonderland (opening November) has been unveiled. 

If you're lucky enough to get to New Zealand in December, you can also as an extra have a Wonderland themed Christmas Party or dinner. Details here. 

No news on if the Alice is Everywhere film festival will appear in New Zealand or UK next year just yet. 

More news on ACMI Wonderland on tour as soon as I can find it! 

ACMI Wonderland Exhibition CONFIRMED for June 2020 in London!

2 days ago Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Also known as V and A) announced a massive retrospective on all things Alice. Including the original novels, and reflections of reflections of reflections on the myriad of adaptations, re imaginings and usages in all kinds of media. 

The exhibition will open on 27th of June 2020. Closing date is 21st of January 2021. 

Quick update:

As of yesterday the Lewis Carroll Society of North America confirmed the V and A London exhibition will be the same as ACMI's Australian Wonderland exhibition.

If this is the full version or the smaller touring version (currently in Singapore) remains to be seen.

Also no news yet on if London version will include the Alice is Everywhere film festival or not. 

Official photos of ACMI's Wonderland on tour in Singapore

This wonderful thing is still running in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore until September!

Photo Source: ArtScienceMuseum's facebook.

ACMI's Wonderland exhibit in Singpore: Extras

So ACMI's massive retrospective on Carroll, Alice and culture opened in Singapore on Saturday on its first tour stop. 

As I hoped, there is an extra attached:



Alice is everywhere film festival

Not what you might think. 

This one is a bit complex: the 2018 Australian premiere also had a film festival with this title, but unfortunately the Singapore version does not have the depth of the 2018 ACMI fest. 

Instead of showing films inspired by Carroll's books, Singapore's Alice is Everywhere offers up 3 versions of Alice. These are 1951, 1933 and 1966 BBC. 

They are only on for three weeks starting now.

Whilst this is always extremely welcome, it feels a little weak in comparison with the original ACMI festival which had 10 + films, many rarities. 

I have no idea why only 3 films are being shown. I also have no idea if this Alice is Everywhere  will become the standard touring version..... I hope not. 

ACMI's Wonderland opens in Singapore on the 13th!

ACMI's massive Alice retrospective Wonderland opens in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on the 13th!

Fall down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, an immersive, playful and interactive exhibition for all ages, celebrating Lewis Carroll's timeless tales of Alice's adventures.
This one-of-a-kind exhibition follows Alice's journey through popular culture and invites you to take a trip through the looking glass into an enchanted world where expectations are upended and curiosity is rewarded. Using theatrical sets, bold, interactive environments, eye-catching props and amazing audiovisual artworks, Wonderland spectacularly conjures up the surprising and magical world of Alice and her adventures! 

Discover how artists and filmmakers have portrayed Alice and her story for over a century. Since her first appearance on the page in 1865, Alice has delighted audiences in more than 40 films and over 30 television programmes, and has become a subcultural icon through her presence in music videos, video games, high fashion, advertising and more. Drawing together a remarkable selection of original behind-the-scenes material, Wonderland includes over 300 artefacts and objects including first edition books, drawings, original costumes, films, magic lantern projectors, animation and puppetry.

No news yet on if the film festival Alice is Everywhere will be part of this tour or if there are any extra features, but as ever I will keep you posted. 

Intriguingly this is described as "the first stop" on a "global tour"

Hmmm... 

Wonderland Exebition Book: A brief review (With Links!)

Many of you know last year on the old blog I did as much coverage of ACMI's world premiere Exhibit Wonderland as I could.

I also mentioned that an exhibition book had been published. 

Although the book is hard to get hold of, as a now proud owner of a copy I can say it is 100 percent worth getting if you're interested in Alice's film journey across the years. It is also an invaluable resource for examining the Alice novels culturally (If, unlike me, you're interested in '60s psychedelia, there's a whole essay about how Carroll's work was appropriated by that subculture) 

The book also contains essays on 1903, 1910, 1915, 1931, 1933, 1949, and 1966. 

1903, 1910 and 1915 are all in one essay which focuses on the process of silent movies and is really interesting.

1932 examines the history of talkie cinema and the movie's creator. Good but not as interesting as it could have been, with too much on the director's other work for my liking. 

1933 takes a feminist approach and argues '33 Alice is a young woman trying to assert her rights in an often male dominated Wonderland. Its well argued but I'm not sure if I agree entirely.

1949 is an exhuming and lament for a version which was cut to pieces and has never seen the light of day in its true form. This analysis is sympathetic and engaging and features rare stills. 

There is also an invaluable and rare interview with Jan Svankmajer for fans of 1988, which contains utterly awesome stills and some great insights. 

Less good are the 3 (!) interviews with people involved in the 2010 and 2016 
non- Carroll Disney franchise. I don't know why there are three. Maybe because both movies are in recent memory?? 

The first with Mia Wasikowska is fair and serviceable, and talks about the weight of Carroll's works and the impact this had on Wasikowska's characterisation of Alice. If, unlike me, you actually like the Disney franchise, this would most likely be extremely interesting to you. 

The second is with costume designer Colleen Atwood who evidently has either never read Carroll's novels or hasn't read them for a while. When asked about Carroll's books, she frequently gets things completely wrong! A bit of a waste of an interview frankly, and I don't think a fan of the Disney franchise would get much out of it either.

The third is with screenwriter Linda Whoolverton, in which she explains why she decided to not adapt carroll's books. Interesting for 2010 and 2016 fans, not so for anyone else. 

For the more unusual Alice seekers there is an essay on the unfinished Marilyn Manson project Phantasmagoria. Not my thing personally but the essay is extremely well written. Related is the essay which compares Alice to a rare 70s italian horror. Curious, but not entirely convincing. 

A good overview on the Quay Brothers's Alice and Svankmajer influenced shorts is included, which is an avenue I hadn't explored before and now want to. 

There is also an essay which looks at the rare Down the Rabbit Hole trope movie Alice or the Last Escapade and gives an overview as to why the 1970s were ripe for Alice homaging. Great to finally get an essay on this movie.

Lastly there is a look at the advert Superflat Monogram, which was a japanese 2000s digital homage to Carroll's Alice. The advert itself is a delightful oddity and so is this essay, which I think is the first on this advert. 

Overall, a solid decent effort of a book but one that positively DEMANDS a follow up. 

NOTES:

You can read some essays from this book online!

1903, 1910 and 1915 Alice

1931 Alice

1933 Alice

1966 Alice