TIM WALKER
V&A, SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON

This exhibition explored the creative process of one of the world's most inventive photographers, Tim Walker, through his pictures, films, photographic sets, and special installations – including ten new series of photographs influenced by the V&A's collections. Tim worked with his scenographer and long tome collaborator Shona Heath to create the sets for the new commissions and also design the immersive sets for the exhibition design.

Studio ZNA worked closely with Shona and her team to create an immersive journey into the fantastical worlds. We created huge light boxes to introduce a Kubrick inspired opening which then softened into a sensuous intimate room bathed in flesh coloured, diffused light. We then enter a deconstructed gothic abbey with stained glass patterning projected onto black gloss floors, followed be a series of immersive scaled rooms ranging from the surreal to the hyper real. We employed moving lights to scan the gallery picking out objects at high level and creating an additional dynamic layer linking the different imagined worlds. We designed a section using ultra violet light to echo the technique employed by Walker in the series of works shown in this section. This gave an extra depth the space and the red finishes took on a heightened glow.

Throughout the exhibition, rainbows were created through projected light to imbue the sense of wonder and possibility and the visitor exits through the enlarged sketchbook through the coloured light of the rainbow.

 
Exhibition Design :  Shona Heath Studio  with technical design by Kit Stiby Harris
Graphic Design : V&A Museum