Welcome in Tim Walker’s Wonderland
Fashion photographer Tim Walker dived into the archives of the London Victoria & Albert Museum and walked out with a series of wonderful artefacts from which he created a fairytale-like photography project. The only opportunity to admire it on the European continent, is at C-Mine in Genk. The exhibition recently re-opened after lockdown and is extended until the end of February, 2021. A must-see.
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things is the largest exhibition devoted to the art work of Tim Walker. This great fashion photographer is also known for his portraits of celebrities such as Tilda Swinton, Alexander McQueen, David Attenborough and Grace Jones.
As you walk through the main gate of this exhibition, you feel as if you are swinging into another world. A little bit like Alice in Wonderland, you are swaying to the other side of the mirror. At the entrance you are greeted by transparent balloons bearing the letters of the exhibition “Wonderful things”. All this in a dream-like atmosphere with different lights colours.
The exhibition mounted by Susanna Brown in a set design by Shona Heath with the assistance of local set designer Jo Klaps is not a trial run for C-mine. C-mine has already demonstrated its ability to attract international exhibitions with projects such as The World of Charles & Ray Eames and The World of Tim Burton.
The works presented at C-mine are inspired by the discoveries of the artist, Tim Walker in the vast collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. For example, one can find references to luminous stained glass windows, socket boxes set with precious stones, embroidered textiles… and even to the famous Bayeux Tapestry in the form of a 65-metre horizontal photograph.
The exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things awaits you at the C-mine Power Station on the former Winterslag mining site. The surrounding area also offers a lot to discover in terms of heritage, architecture and design. C-mine reopens the exhibition from Wednesday, December 2, 2020. The exhibition is extended until 21 February 2021. Take the opportunity to visit the museum during the festive season if you have some free time. This is an exhibition not to be missed, especially if you are interested in the world of fashion and photography.
A predestined artist
Tim Walker is one of the greatest fashion photographers of the moment. His artwork has been featured in magazines such as Vogue. The exhibition owes its title to the famous British archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen and who replied when he discovered the place: “Yes, wonderful things”. This is exactly the feeling that Tim Walker wishes to create in visitors to his exhibition.
Tim Walker was born in 1970 in the United Kingdom. Since his childhood he has had a passion for creation and more particularly for scenography. Indeed, he is a dreamer. In his grandparents house, when he was a child, he used to have fun setting up plants in the garden and taking pictures of them. Photography has therefore been a passion of Tim Walker’s for a very long time. It is very inspiring to see someone who today lives from his passion. His road has been set since his childhood.
He went on to work in the Vogue archives at the age of 18, which launched his career. For him “fashion is the dream office of photography” because you can use your imagination without any barriers. Everything is illusion, nothing is real.
He made his first shooting at the age of 25. For a trial shot, it’s a masterstroke: his career is launched. Since then, he has been working for the international editions of Vogue with an essential quest: to put the human being back at the centre of all his work.
Dreams on film
Tim Walker is a collector. He collects references, ideas, memories. Compiles images. “What I photograph is a place that never existed, but connected to something that was. »
What makes this artist so special is his extraordinary ability to push each subject beyond its own limits. His fantastic imagination allows us to escape the banality of reality. What you see in the pictures is exactly what he sees: he really lives in this fantasy landscape and simply tries to put it into images.
« A camera always gives you a good reason to go on an adventure »
Apparently, the images of British photographer Tim Walker are nothing more than fashion photographs… But they are so much more than that: they are dreams printed on film. They do what fashion knows how to do best: take you into an imaginary world, tell a story, sublimate a personality by shaking it up. The goal of Tim Walker is not to sell clothes but sell dreams. So many elements that make a cliché make an impression and serve as a collection.
Each image of Walker is nourished by a literary or pictorial reference. Clair-obscure, geometry, the techniques of the great masters influence his compositions. A simple series of fashion turns into a baroque exploration always inspired by memories of a bucolic childhood. He imagines scenarios where every mannequins become not objects of desire but real characters of a movie. He constructs a story and does everything to make it believable.
One of the photographs that impressed me the most is without a doubt the black-eyed figure dressed in pink on a blue background. At first impression, this photo can be frightening and suck up a certain disgust. Nevertheless, after having carefully observed the character it becomes very interesting and captivating. Between the real and the unreal, the dream or the nightmare. We don’t know where to place and that’s what makes the beauty of this photograph. I think this image is the perfect representation of Tim Walker’s work. Constantly surprised and not being able to really express the emotions one feels in front of his work.
This exhibition very well deserves a visit, just as the well-chosen nostalgic setting of the former engine rooms of the coalerie at C-Mine Genk does, where the exhibition is taking place. To immerse yourself in a completely unreal world that will take you out of your everyday life and will undoubtedly make you dream a little bit. Dreaming is always good, especially in the world we live now.
