Victoria & Albert Museum Visit

When at the Victoria and Albert Museum I took photographs on my camera phone of art pieces and architecture that caught my eye and interested me:

Handkerchief for Roy
Mexico, 2013
This handkerchief was embroidered with the mother of Roy Rivera, who was abducted aged 18. She paid a ransom, but he was never heard from again. Only a fifth of over 26,000 disappearances between 2006 and 2012 were registered by the Mexican government. Bordamos Por La Paz groups embroider and display handkerchiefs weekly across Mexico. Their work honours victims, advocates for recognition and questions the governments promise to keep its citizens safe.

 In 1989, a shift in the Guerrilla Girls' work took place when they added a distinct female image to their poster "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" Beneath the question lay a reproduction of Ingres's Odalisque, a reclining nude figure whose nude back and hips symbolize idealized female beauty. Instead of a beautiful and classic profile, however, the figure has been masked with the Guerrilla Girls' hallmark -- a large, shaggy gorilla's head. This poster was commissioned by the Public Art Fund, which supports public art projects in New York City. The Guerrilla Girls designed the poster hoping that it would appeal to a more general audience. However, the Public Art Fund rejected their design because they found the shape of the fan held by the woman to be phallic. (The nudity of the woman raised no objections.) The Guerrilla Girls then decided to rent advertising space on New York City buses and run the ad themselves. But the bus company canceled their lease because they also thought the image was too suggestive.

Vishnu is a popular Hindu deity. He is the Supreme God of Vaishnavism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. He is also known as Lord Narayana, the Supreme God and also known as Lord Hari. He is one of the five primary forms of God in the Smarta tradition, and "the Preserver" among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine.

In Hindu sacred texts, Vishnu is usually described as having dark complexion of water-filled clouds and as having four arms. He is depicted as a blue being, holding a padma (lotus flower) in the lower left hand, the Kaumodaki gada (mace) in the lower right hand, the Panchajanyashankha (conch) in the upper left hand and the discus weapon Sudarshana Chakra in the upper right hand.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), London, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as "Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001.

I loved this part of architecture as it is very symmetrical, with the straight lines and arches. The marble gives off a very appealing pattern to the columns and stairwell.

I also loved these parts of the architecture as they included so much detail and intricacy to their design and are very aesthetically pleasing. The light colours make them easy on the eye with a classy modern feel.

My thoughts and opinion on the Victoria and Albert Museum:

I thought that the museum was extremely interesting because it had a wide variety of different cultures, time periods and mediums, ranging from the Victorian period, Edwardian, Post-war and recent years. And some of the collections ranged from architecture, Asia, books, British galleries, Cast courts, ceramic and glass, contemporary, drawings, fashion, etc. This helped make the museum interesting as it didnt just focus on one specific type of collection, but a wide range.

Apart from what was being showcased in the museum, I also enjoyed the architecture of the museums building, as it was very vast and detailed in parts.