Tim Walker at the V&A
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A. Exhibition image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In 2019 we had the incredible honour of framing Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A, an immersive exhibition celebrating the iconic photographer.
Working with the V&A exhibition team, curator Susanna Brown, set designer Shona Heath and Tim Walker himself, we designed and handmade bespoke frames for the entire exhibition.
Custom colours and shapes for Tim Walker frames
We mixed custom colours for the eight different styled rooms: dusty pink, fluro yellow, jade green, iridescent pearl alongside clinical black and white; all of which added to the wild and eclectic atmosphere of the exhibition.
We designed custom joinery and handcrafted unusual shapes for different sets of frames, including soft curved edges, domes, zigzag angles and lightboxes.
In total, we handmade frames for over 100 beautiful Tim Walker photographs, including infamous photographs of Duckie Thot, Tilda Swinton and David Hockney.
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A. Exhibition image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A. Exhibition image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A. Exhibition image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A. Exhibition image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Extraordinary exhibition design
Shona Heath, creative director and set designer, has worked with Tim for the past 20 years and was the exhibition designer for the V&A exhibition, Wonderful Things.
This brilliant quote by Shona Heath is from an article on the V&A website.
I'm not always so impressed by exquisite beauty. I like odd craftsmanship and peculiarities, things that make me ask "how on earth did that happen like that?" or "who actually sat and made that, and why?" But it's always about a connection.
Watch her at work and discussing where inspiration comes from in this film by the V&A below.
Making curved pearlescent frames
Discover how we made pearlescent frames for Tim Walker’s exhibition. In this article, we describe every part of the frame’s journey, including cutting the wood to a specialist shape in the workshop, the process of making the pearlescent pigment in the spray booth, and finally dusting the frame with an air gun to protect the work in our fit and finish department.
Please contact us if you would like us to recreate a Tim Walker frame for your own artwork.
