Recently, the U2 by UCCA (U2 Art Museum) of the Future Generation Art Museum was officially opened, and the "Curious Girl Alice" jointly organized by the U2 Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in the United Kingdom was also presented as an opening exhibition, revealing the mystery of the protagonist of the novel "Alice in Wonderland" through nearly 300 works in 5 chapters. In addition to the manuscripts of the original author and related historical photographs, "Alternative Alice" is also presented through illustrations by Salvador Dali and Yayoi Kusama's creations.
It is understood that the "Curious Girl Alice" exhibition has previously been first exhibited in London, and Beijing is the first stop of its global tour, after which the exhibition will go to Tokyo and other places to continue the journey of "Alice". The exhibition will run until June 11.
On a summer afternoon 160 years ago, Charles Doddyson, a mathematics teacher at Christ's College in Oxford, took his colleague Henry Riddle's family's three young daughters on a boat trip on the River Thames. Looking at the natural scenery along the coast and the wild animals that appear from time to time, Dodgeson has a brilliant story of a girl who follows a talking white rabbit into the underground wonderland and embarks on a fantastic adventure. He named the protagonist of the story after the second daughter of the Riddle family's most lively and curious daughter: Alice.
It is a Western "mistaken into the peach blossom garden" style story, author Louis Carroll finally created a series of stories in the novel featuring "Alice", "March Rabbit", "Cheshire Cat" and "Red Queen", completing the Alice in Wonderland novel. Alice's story has not faded with time, and in 160 years, Alice, who fell down the rabbit hole, became a supercultural symbol that spanned time and space.
Stills from the 2010 movie Alice in Wonderland
On February 28, U2 by UCCA (U2 Art Gallery), the Museum of The Next Generation, officially opened, and "Alice of curious girls" jointly organized by U2 Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in the United Kingdom was also presented as the opening exhibition, which will continue to be in exhibition until June 11. It is understood that the "Curious Girl Alice" exhibition has previously been first exhibited in London, and Beijing is the first stop of its global tour, after which the exhibition will go to Tokyo and other places to continue the journey of "Alice".
"Curious Girl Alice" exhibition hall
The surging news saw at the scene that the "Curious Girl Alice" exhibition focuses on the presentation of documentary materials and the reproduction of scenes. Revealing the mystery of "Alice" through nearly 300 works in 5 chapters, the main exhibits include the manuscript of the original author of "Alice in Wonderland", related historical photos, videos and works of art interpreting alice's story, including a series of illustrations created by Salvador Dali for Alice in Wonderland, recreating the strange and dazzling "underworld"; The "Queen of Dots" Yayoi Kusama uses Alice as a symbol of courage...
Victorian period: Alice's origins
The "Curious Girl Alice" exhibition is divided into five chapters, the first chapter, "The Longest Day", which focuses on the characters, social environment and regional culture that inspired Louis Carroll by tracing the victorian origins of Alice in Wonderland in Oxford.
In the winter of 1865, Dodgson published the first fantasy novel Alice in Wonderland under the pseudonym Louis Carroll, which was named after Alice Riddle, daughter of her friend Henry Riddle.
In September 1872, female pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron used Alice Riddle as her muse to document her beautiful girlhood. Alice Riddle, who was the prototype of Alice, grew up to be an adventurous and talented woman. At the age of 19, she traveled across Europe with her sisters Edith and Lolina and sketched the landscapes for her mentor, John Ruskin. She befriended the isle of Wight's literary and artistic circles, visited Queen Victoria, and eventually married wealthy cricketer Reginald Hargreaves. As an adult, Alice still has a strong curiosity about all things and a strong will. She remained in touch with Doudhison until Hisson's death in 1898.
Alice Riddle
Alice Riddle and her sisters
The 1867 edition of Alice in Wonderland contains numerous illustrations showing the author's initial ideas, and in the second chapter of the book, Alice stretches her body "like a telescope" after eating a cake, and this illustration depicts this scene, and these early illustrations are also imitated and reproduced as a kind of nostalgia in later designs.
The 1867 edition of Alice in Wonderland contains many illustrations
Illustration in Alice in Wonderland
Photography, invented in the 1830s, fundamentally changed the way we see the world. Dodgson was an early pioneer of photography, obsessed with the artistry and science of photography and became a photographer keen to photograph family and friends. In this photograph of his aunts playing chess, Dodgson paints some of the pieces red, perhaps foreshadowing the role of the Red and White Queen in his second book, Adventures in alice in the Mirror.
Pictures of aunts playing chess
The author, Doucheson, lived in the Victorian era in England, and Dodgson took the children on several visits to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. There, they were amazed by the skeleton of the dodo. Excavations of Victorian fossils and alien species from the New World challenge the widespread perception of ancient history, and extinct species like the dodo are becoming more dreamlike, surreal and even comical.
Dodo skeleton specimen
In the 19th century, the Martin brothers were famous for their "Wally" bird, a ceramic work with human characteristics and a barbed meaning. The Wally Bird is not a real species, but a knot of reality and fantasy. Similarly, a large number of anthropomorphic animals appear in the Alice series of books, such as the white rabbit with time consciousness.
The Wally Bird tobacco can made by the Martin brothers
Dodgeson borrowed a number of British nursery rhymes when he created Alice in the Mirror. For example, his family owns a copy of The Short And The Pictorial by Alikes, which may have provided inspiration for the character Short. In Alice in the Mirror, the short and fat man is a rude, conceited character.
Short And Fat Pictorial
The image of the short and fat man in Alice in Wonderland
Alice on the screen
From drama to farce and musical, the popularity of Alice in Wonderland has brought about a variety of stage adaptations. Some musicals have brought characters such as Alice and White Rabbit to contemporary society, re-contextuating their adventures in 1913, and the many magical creatures in Alice in Wonderland also provide rich inspiration for the design of the characters on stage.
Poster for the early 20th century Alice in Wonderland stage play
At the beginning of the 20th century, film emerged as a new form of mass entertainment, providing an unprecedented platform for Alice's story to be displayed, and Alice was able to meet a global audience. "Alice" provided an excellent showcase for the groundbreaking cinematic techniques, ingenious costume design and dramatic scenes of the time.
From the editing techniques of the early days of film development to the film synthesis technology of the 21st century, the screen adaptations of the Alice in Wonderland series have created a series of classic visual scenes in the history of cinema. The film also encouraged the public to diversify the interpretation of the Alice series of books, opening the "entrance to wonderland" for more people. Over the past 100 years, filmmakers have adapted Alice's story in a variety of ways, such as Hollywood musicals, avant-garde art films, psychoanalytic stop-motion animation, and adventure animation, among others.
In 1903, the first film based on Alice
Disney's Alice in Wonderland is one of the most culturally influential adaptations in the history of cinema. Walt Disney has always been interested in the Alice series and began planning a complete feature film in the 1930s. However, numerous filmmaking programs, successive creative bottlenecks, and World War II put his ideas on hold. In the end, Mary Blair's fantasy-filled conceptual design brought new life to the Alice Film Project, and the vivid fusion of Alice in Wonderland and Alice in the Mirror made Walt Disney determined to restart the Alice Film Project.
Released in 1951, Disney's disney version of Alice in Wonderland features an unforgettable soundtrack and creative visual aesthetic. In 2010, a new Film by Alice, directed by Tim Burton and released by Walt Disney Studios, reinvented Alice's image for a new generation of audiences.
Blair designed the image of Alice and the White Rabbit
Disney's poster about alice in series
Whether physically or psychologically, playing the role of Alice is not an easy task. The actor must not only objectively present this beloved character, but also perform in highly technical scenes. In the face of this pressure, Charlotte Henry, who played Alice in Wonderland in 1933 by Paramount Pictures, reflected: "After putting on the costume, I became the character they thought they read in the book as a child. As Charlotte I disappeared. ”
Charlotte Henry, Alice in Wonderland
1933 Japanese poster of Alice in Wonderland
Alternative Alice
With the development of the times, filmmakers are no longer limited to the interpretation of original works and illustrations, but interpret Alice from a new creative perspective. Underneath these avant-garde ideas, Carroll's story provides boundless inspiration for the fields of psychological research and artistic experimentation.
In Jane Svankmager's stop-motion puppet animation Alice's Stuff, the characters in the book are transformed into lifelike childhood toys. Among them, a white rabbit specimen depicts the well-dressed but morally ambiguous guide. In Children of Dreams, directed by Gavin Miller and written by Dennis Potter, the grown-up "real" Alice is haunted by her memories of Wonderland, which is filled with disturbing puppets made by Jim Hansen's biology studio.
The disturbing "wonderland" animals that appear in Children of Dreams
Stop motion animation white rabbit
The "Surrealism" of the 1920s was a group of radical artists and a wave of art. They aim to change people's past perceptions and expose the contradictions of all things in the process of exploring the illogical universe. They set their sights on the subconscious, digging into gender perceptions, desires, and distortions buried deep in people's inner worlds. In 924, André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement, issued a manifesto: "Everyone has the power of Alice to explore wonderland together". The Surrealists captured ideas and imagery from Carroll's texts to inspire their creations, such as Alice's struggles to grow up in a seemingly meaningless adult world, and her adventurous journey from the real world to the dream world.
Surrealist artistic interpretation of Alice
Illustration of Alice in Wonderland by Salvador Dali. Salvador Dalí created a set of vivid and fantastical illustrations depicting Alice's underground adventures for the 1969 limited edition of Alice in Wonderland. In contrast to the first-edition illustrations, which illustrator John Tenniel is well known for, Dalí boldly infused his creations with his highly iconic surrealist style, including a melting clock. In 1935, he created his first alice image, a jumping rope girl, echoing the imagery he used in the Disney animated short Destino, and appearing in each picture with ever-changing proportions, light, and perspective.
Illustration of Alice in Wonderland by Salvador Dali.
In 1968, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama staged a nude performance about sexual liberation next to the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in New York's Central Park. Kusama has been looking for inspiration in Wonderland for years, calling Alice "the first hippie" and positioning her as a symbol of counterculture and a core of opposition to the Vietnam War. Kusama's performance art event, known as the "atomic explosion," reflects an awakening in the international scientific community that nuclear experiments should be conducted for the benefit of humanity rather than for military purposes.
Alice by Yayoi Kusama
In addition, in this exhibition, several classic scenes from Alice have been restored, such as the mushroom-infested scene, the mad hatter table, and the sculpture of the 2017 Red Peach Queen stage costume.
At the exhibition site, the classic scene was restored
Regarding the U2 Art Museum, Tian Feiyu, director of the UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, introduced: "After fifteen years of development, UCCA Group has developed from an art museum to a multi-museum, multi-brand art museum industry group, U2 is a new brand in this development model, we hope that this brand will have a direct dialogue with more young audiences under the UCCA system, just like the brand name of 'U2', 'art you and me', or to connect you and me with art." "U2 Art Museum is located on the 10th floor of Beijing Chaoyang Joy City, with a total construction area of nearly 3,000 square meters, including nearly 1,500 square meters of exhibition halls and nearly 1,500 square meters of composite cultural space, and is the first professional art museum in beijing's urban commercial complex.
Xu Ning, CEO of Americita/U2 Art Museum, said, "U2's mission is to use artistic content to connect our users, spaces, and our way of life. From now on, young users can experience world-class art content, entertainment scenes and cultural consumption in Beijing's landmark commercial complex, and U2 looks forward to using art to dialogue with audiences, communities and our urban culture. ”