The Kensington Valhalla, the Raphael Cartoons, Paul Delaroche’s St Cecilia and the Angels, the pre-Raphaelites, Foggini’s Samson and the Philistines: these are simply among the objects in dialog with costumes and artefacts from Taylor Swift’s archive at a brand new V&A Museum exhibition. Taylor Swift: Songbook Path presents 13 moments from throughout the 34-year-old musician’s profession. Quite than include them in a single exhibition, the items – from tour apparel to immediately recognisable outfits from Swift’s album artwork and movies and even a faux beard – are unfold throughout your complete footprint of the museum, participating with the everlasting collections.
“It’s the primary time we’ve finished this sort of theatrical set up for a up to date artist,” mentioned curator Kate Bailey. Organising it entailed loads of different firsts: “I’ve by no means displayed a microphone earlier than,” she mentioned – not least one adorned with a gold serpent, as designed for Swift’s 2018 Status tour.
The exhibition got here collectively unusually quick, mentioned Bailey, conceived in response to “this summer season second of Taylor Swift being within the UK” on the Eras tour – which ran in June and returns for a closing London stint in August: “It felt like one thing we might make occur throughout the museum due to the character of the chapters of her profession and the best way Taylor works with curiosity and Easter eggs.” Whereas 1000’s of followers have been unable to attain dear Eras tickets, the V&A exhibition is free, and supposed to interact youthful guests with their collections. Displaying objects equivalent to microphones and devices, mentioned Bailey, match the V&A’s emphasis on the facility of creativity. “I really feel very obsessed with bringing that in. She’s a songwriter. That is the guitar. That is all it takes – some creativeness, some expertise – and you’ll go wherever.”
Pitching to Swift’s workforce was “a really artistic, easy course of”, mentioned Bailey, with items drawn from Swift’s private archive (Swift herself was not personally concerned). “It’s very encouraging that she has an archive as a result of not all artists maintain their stuff and take care of it so brilliantly, however she does, and we got nice entry.” She described the exhibition as “very poetic and literary versus bombastic like Wembley shall be – it’s a really totally different journey by way of chapters.”
On Tuesday morning, as technicians made closing touches, Bailey stood earlier than a tableau centred on Swift’s 2019 album Lover. Towards the Valhalla mosaics, all by male artists, Swift’s drag outfit, faux facial hair and director’s chair from her self-directed video for The Man – plus her MTV Video Music award for course – stood flanked by sculptures of Venus and Diana. “It’s fairly playful and speaks to the patriarchal presentation of the male artist and Taylor’s relationship with the patriarchy,” mentioned Bailey.
A mix of stage costumes and lesser-seen outfits gave the exhibition “a mixture of intimacy and spectacle”, she mentioned. “I introduced it as feeling like she’s simply left the room, which feels true to the best way that she communicates with followers.” A whistle-stop sprint by way of the museum took in two battle-worn stage outfits from the 1989 tour, nonetheless wrapped in protecting paper, and the costume from the quilt of Converse Now (Taylor’s Model) displayed within the gilded music room of Norfolk Home.
The cardigan worn within the video for Cardigan, from Swift’s 2020 lockdown album Folklore, was draped over a piano stool. “Having a model didn’t really feel proper,” mentioned Bailey. “It’s extra expressive on the stool – there’s the sense that she’s been right here, as if it’s about to come back to life.” The piano itself was lined in actual moss (made safely fire-retardant, one other first for the museum) and softly taking part in birdsong to echo that album’s woodsy aesthetic. Subsequent door, the costume from the Willow music video – from Folklore’s 2020 sister album, Evermore – contrasted with Francis Danby’s Upset Love and different “Victorian style work telling tales by way of artwork”, mentioned Bailey. “It nearly appears like she lived in these galleries to create the music.”
Bailey was significantly taken with the black vegan leather-based Victoriana costume from the video to this 12 months’s single Fortnight, from the album The Tortured Poets Division, which offers a dramatic conclusion to the museum path. “You assume, why did she select an Nineties costume versus an 1870s costume?” she questioned aloud. “The Nineties are a very distinct second for the start of the emancipation of girls, they’re beginning to get extra jobs; the typewriters within the video nod to extra roles for ladies.”
Bailey curated final 12 months’s Diva exhibition on the V&A, and within the programme notes, cited French critic Théophile Gautier’s characterisation of the diva as “‘thrice gifted’, an ideal fusion of music, phrases and picture”. Does Swift rely as a diva?
“Every technology redefines the diva and he or she is a pioneer on so many ranges, whether or not that’s along with her songwriting, the re-recording, her photos and aesthetics,” mentioned Bailey. What’s totally different, she mentioned, was that “you’ll be able to’t separate her from the fandom. Divas are worshipped, however with Swift that relationship is a dialogue. It’s extra embracing – individuals really feel like she’s of their bed room with them.” (The V&A’s not too long ago employed Swiftie superfans, nevertheless, weren’t a part of placing collectively this present.)
And in distinction to what number of pop superstars use persona – equivalent to David Bowie, topic of a 2013 V&A present – “you at all times see Taylor Swift” in her outfits, mentioned Bailey. “That’s actually highly effective and genuine, whether or not you’re trying on the nation debut and her cowboy boots or every other period, it’s nonetheless completely Taylor.”
Taylor Swift: Songbook Path is on the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, from 27 July
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