Alan Aldridge Exhibition

I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am and spent a total of 11 hours on a bus to see this exhibition at the Design museum, London. Whether it was worth this amount of suffering im not sure, but i definetly enjoyed it and got some inspiration out of it.

The huge cut outs and hanging displays made it unlike any exhibition id ever seen before; it felt almost like entering a whole new world. The Beatles music being played added to the atmosphere. I thought his imagination is fantastic; i particularly liked the odd little creatures he invented for the children's book 'The Butterfly Ball' (Illustrated poems). Its an idea i should consider in the hallucination / paranoia aspect of my major project. Though i generally liked the way the exhibition was laid out, I can definetly see Roger Sabin's point (review, Eye magazine no. 70, p.88) that "the exhibition can feel like a fairground ride at times, and the candyfloss quality of some of the art can lead to a risk of sugar rush".

One large room was covered from floor to ceiling with his album cover designs and illustrations for the Beatles lyrics (of which i bought a book). At first this room looked very impressive, and added to the feeling of stepping into Aldridge's world, but then i realized that I'd actually like to see the stuff that was 20 ft in the air.

I was suprised by how much commercial work hed done - i was unaware that hed designed book and magazine covers and worked in advertising, but one of my favourite pieces on display was a Heineken ad, consisting of two images, the first of a weary, pale looking caterpillar with a full pint of Heineken. The second is an empty glass and the caterpillar has developed fantastic, bright coloured wings. His work for Penguin has inspired my cover design; I loved the contrast between the simple black background and the bright, bold image on the front.

Other exhibits included a car painted with psychedelic designs (I'd love to do this to my car..), but my favourite piece was an animation for 'One of these Days' by Pink Floyd. It felt like driving through a tunnel at night while on acid (not that i have done this) - the walls were covered in wierd and wonderful creatures, and kaleidoscope inspired designs. Though a bit disjointed in places, i loved it and watched it several times.

I like the last line of the review in Eye magazine: Aldridge "sucessfully navigated the tricky terrain between blowing deadlines and blowing minds".