In a time where not even Alice would dare to look through the mirror, the Tate Liverpool offers us a kaleidoscopic look of the interpretations and history in the World of art over the last 150 years.
Since Lewis Carroll published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, it’s references and stories have not stopped growing: Films, paintings, sculptures, illustrations, contemporary installations…. All conversations set our hearts ablaze leaving us intrigued and forcing us to look deeper.
Individuality, introspection, the limits between reality and fiction, language, time and space, are questions specific to contemporary culture, which Carroll anticipated in his stories about Alice and her friends. The Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Humpty Dumpty, amongst others, have become to inhabit the western culture and remain as iconic figures in our memories.
Until the 29th January, the Tate Liverpool offers a tour around the creative Heritage of those magically stories. From the first illustrations of Carroll, elaborated by the artist himself, to the latest contemporary referentes, the exhibition will travel the paths of Alice in four different times. The first will demonstrate the oldest illustrations, photographs taken by Carroll of the Liddell family, a reconstruction of the childrens culture of the nineteenth Century, including even some original cartoons of Walt Disney himself. The second part will explore the universe of Surrealism and it’s ties with the fantasies of Alice, from the work of Max Ernt or Magritte. The final part of the exhibition runs from the 60’s the Pop culture until today, displaying illustrations of Blake and Dalí, the work of Anna Gaskell, Paula Rego, Sigmar Polke, Kiki Smith or Diana Thater.
Art still follows the White Rabbit.
Bárbara Muriel
