Tim Walker, Pictures, Design Museum

Chilly, drizzly London Sundays are made for museums. So off I went to the glorious Design Museum yesterday, in order to see the Tim Walker, Pictures exhibition. It was glorious - simply one of the best exhibitions I have seen in a long time; undoubtedly Pictures left an inspired imprint upon me that I haven't felt since I saw Anglomania, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pictures was probably even better, as far as exhibition pragmatics go - I didn't have to jostle with anyone at all, it wasn't necessary to buy a time-alloted ticket and the Design Museum is just a great space, with lots of light, a wicked shop and Monmouth coffee in the café. Hurrah.

Back to Tim. One of my exhibition companions, S, commented the photographs were, 'the most English thing I have ever seen.' Englishness and childhood are indeed the prevailing themes in Walker's work, with the clothes, from Glastonbury wellies to Paris couture, neatly fitting into the narratives of his Pictures. What a great title, as well, for these are pictures - the word photograph speaks too strongly of documentation and detail where Tim Walker's work tells stories and explores ideas - these are pictures painted in the same way Lewis Carroll painted pictures of Alice.

One of the things the three of us found most striking about the work - at least, what we talked about afterward in the most English pub we could find - was the purity and clarity of Walker's ideas. We remember having ideas like these as game-playing children - as C so rightly commented, if we could get the dressing-up box out in the process it was a bonus - and one can’t help but feel that this is just how Walker works. His ideas are derivative of nothing but his own memories, experiences and idiosyncratic way of looking at the world - and he just so happens to have the best dressing up box you can imagine at his disposal. Plus, Lily Cole, Karen Elson and Erin O’Connor are all ready and willing to come and play.

Go see - you might bump into me as I am just not sure I can let this exhibition hurtle toward its 7th September close without another visit!