Transparent Plastics Final Outcome

The World Goes POP

I love pop art – the bright colours and zany designs.  Any mention of pop art and I instantly think of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichstenstein.  Warhol’s designs such as the Campbells soup cans and the Marilyn Monroe diptych and Lichtenstein’s comic book paintings such as the Whaam! piece are easily recognisable and are what most people think of when pop art is mentioned.  These American artists were commenting on the influence of advertising on society through their work.  However, this Tate Modern exhibition, The World Goes Pop, brought together other works of art from around the world which could be defined as pop art too.

As I entered the exhibition, the pop art bright colours and large scale installations in different mediums were there, but as I moved through each room I realised that the art was more about political protest and mass demonstration in various parts of the world.  There were also a large number of pieces by women on the struggles of women.  I was not aware of any well-known female pop artists on the American art scene, but there seemed to works of art by women from other parts of the world.

In the first room there was a painting which took up a large proportion of the wall called Without Rebellion (1970) by the polish artist Zielinski (whom I’d never heard of).  A large white face with two Polish eagles in front of red suns in place of eyes.  Further down, a scarlet pillow representing a tongue sticks out across the floor and is pinned with a large metal spike.  This piece was a protest against censorship in the Poland.

A lot of these artists from around the world use their art to comment on the violence in the world such as the US involvement in The Vietnam War, nuclear bombs, the Cold War and contrast it with the Western countries focus on consumerism.  The Joan Rabascall piece, Atomic Kiss (1968) shows an iconic pair of red lips plastered over an image of an atomic explosion.  I thought this was a really striking image.

One installation which I thought really stood out not simply because of its colour was The Red Coat (1969) by the French artist Nicola L which is basically a red raincoat made of bright red vinyl for eleven people.  She initially created for an Isle of Wight Festival so that a group of people could enjoy the Festival and not become separated in the crowd.  It meant that the eleven people sharing a ‘collective skin’ had to behave as one.

This exhibition showed that there was more to the pop art scene than we usually have exposure to.  I think it’s great to be able to look at things from another angle and that’s what this exhibition really delivered.

Soraya x

Alice in Wonderland at the British Library

My love of Alice in Wonderland started when I was very young and I’ve been a fan ever since.  From my first introduction to the characters, courtesy of Disney, it was a story that was a wonderful combination of the most intriguing, ridiculous things, as well as at times a little scary (the Cheshire Cat has a lot to answer for)!

Being an Alice fan, with several editions of the book and a commemorative set of Alice postage stamps no less, I was delighted at Christmas to receive a necklace by Little Moose, a range of laser cut acrylic jewellery commissioned for the British Library.  This is when I first heard about the exhibition.

The British Library commemorated the 150^th anniversary of the publication of the book with an exhibit of an array of illustrated editions of the book along with Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript which was displayed in a glass cabinet.  The oversized panels with signs and quotes from the book, large images like the one of an overgrown Alice bursting out of a house and the monochrome swirls and patterns really set the scene.  Along with the numerous books that have been produced the vast collection of associated merchandise was on display too.   There were playing cards, dinnerware and teasets with Alice in Wonderland inspired illustrations, psychedelic posters and toys amongst many other things.

I visited this exhibition when I did to also take the opportunity to have a look around the Alice in Wonderland pop-up shop which was only going to be there for a limited time.  It was located in the entrance and it was definitely eye-catching with inspiration taken from the earliest drawings of the Alice in Wonderland characters. The monochrome swirling vortex on the floor invites you take a journey down the rabbit hole and enter their Mad Hatter’s tea party.  I also didn’t miss the opportunity to add to my necklace collection with two more from the Little Moose range!

Soraya x