“This exhibition looks at the history of the Alice in Wonderland books and examines their continuing influence on the visual arts.
We show Charles Dodgson (who wrote the books under the name of Lewis Carroll) as a central part of the art world of his time when he was particularly close to the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
His books later influenced and inspired the surrealists – the British surrealists were even called the ‘Children of Alice’.
In the later sections of the exhibition, contemporary artists appropriate and play with the visual iconography of Alice and many use language and writing as a means of artistic expression.
This is an important reference to the original literary source, since the play with language and meaning is also central to the Alice books. Everybody who has read the Alice stories will have noticed the important role that talking plays in these two books.
At one point, Alice even says: ‘What use is a book without pictures and conversations?’
Which brings us to my chosen piece; it’s a geometrical arrangement of written notes on different kinds of pieces of paper pinned on the wall in a huge rectangle. The artist is deaf and these improvised notes help him communicate with people who do not know sign language.
Who these seemingly random notes come from, which ones have been written by the artist and which ones are by other people is unclear. But in a way we see conversation materialised in the form of these brief notes, statements and comments.
We cannot hear them, we need to see and read them. Funnily enough, one of these notes reads: ‘I sometimes feel like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I’m late, I’m late… What will the duchess say?’
I find it ‘curious’ – to use Alice’s word – that the artist himself uses this reference to express the experience of hurrying in his private life.
This makes the Alice reference of this particular work so light, kind of ‘by-the-way’– it is both unintended and charming. One of the reasons the Alice books have been such a continuing source of inspiration for artists is the importance of perception: understanding and creating meaning on the basis of what we physically perceive with our senses.
Perceptions may change due to the development of technique, mass media and society but we are still dependent on our five senses – what we see, hear, taste, feel and smell. On another level, the stories are very much about conversation and communication via language.
This capacity and necessity to connect is a very basic theme, not only of the books, but for everyone as social human beings.”
Christoph Benjamin Schulz is co-curator of Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool. Alice in Wonderland is at Tate Liverpool until 29 January
We show Charles Dodgson (who wrote the books under the name of Lewis Carroll) as a central part of the art world of his time when he was particularly close to the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
His books later influenced and inspired the surrealists – the British surrealists were even called the ‘Children of Alice’.
In the later sections of the exhibition, contemporary artists appropriate and play with the visual iconography of Alice and many use language and writing as a means of artistic expression.
This is an important reference to the original literary source, since the play with language and meaning is also central to the Alice books. Everybody who has read the Alice stories will have noticed the important role that talking plays in these two books.
At one point, Alice even says: ‘What use is a book without pictures and conversations?’
Which brings us to my chosen piece; it’s a geometrical arrangement of written notes on different kinds of pieces of paper pinned on the wall in a huge rectangle. The artist is deaf and these improvised notes help him communicate with people who do not know sign language.
Who these seemingly random notes come from, which ones have been written by the artist and which ones are by other people is unclear. But in a way we see conversation materialised in the form of these brief notes, statements and comments.
We cannot hear them, we need to see and read them. Funnily enough, one of these notes reads: ‘I sometimes feel like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I’m late, I’m late… What will the duchess say?’
I find it ‘curious’ – to use Alice’s word – that the artist himself uses this reference to express the experience of hurrying in his private life.
This makes the Alice reference of this particular work so light, kind of ‘by-the-way’– it is both unintended and charming. One of the reasons the Alice books have been such a continuing source of inspiration for artists is the importance of perception: understanding and creating meaning on the basis of what we physically perceive with our senses.
Perceptions may change due to the development of technique, mass media and society but we are still dependent on our five senses – what we see, hear, taste, feel and smell. On another level, the stories are very much about conversation and communication via language.
This capacity and necessity to connect is a very basic theme, not only of the books, but for everyone as social human beings.”
Christoph Benjamin Schulz is co-curator of Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool. Alice in Wonderland is at Tate Liverpool until 29 January