Message for the readers: WARNING this article is slightly impartial, but there was noother way to describe Tim Burton’s genius.
It is in Federation Square, it is on from 24th June to 10th October, it is an ACMI exhibition, it is one of Melbourne’s winter masterpieces, directed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it is the tribute to a career and the best wish for the future: it is “Tim Burton: the exhibition”.
Edited in direct collaboration with Tim Burton himself, the exhibition brings together more than 700 works, among which drawings, puppets, paintings, storyboards, costumes and films. It aims to let everyone explore and enjoy the genius of Tim Burton, to let them discover the gothic fantasy, the dark humour that characterize his works as director, artist, photographer and illustrator. It takes place in the middle of the high imposing glass buildings of Melbourne, between the strange shapes of the modern art that characterize the whole city centre.
As you walk in you know you are in the right place: suspended high in the entrance hall is Balloon Boy, a new inflatable sculpture by Tim Burton commissioned originally for the exhibition at MoMA. The black Batmobile stands in front of you, on a green carpet surrounded by red and white monster heads that hang from the wall.
You pass under an arch and suddenly you are walking down the stairs in the dark and in front of you a sign that asks to take a few moments to let your eyes get used to the different light. And it works: in a few seconds you raise your eyes and down there there is a big topiary from the movie Edward Scissorhands and near that green deer a big screen with clips from the movie projected which is above the original costume worn by Johnny Depp and gloves with all the blades that substituted his hands. They chose that particular movie because it is considered to be the artwork that better than every other expresses Tim Burton’s personality.
All the artworks in the galleries are borrowed from private collections, from Tim Burton himself and from the studios records.
The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections on display in Gallery 1, with additional content in ACMI’s gallery 2 and Video Garden. The main important things are on display in the first gallery and they are divided in “Surviving Burbank”, “Beautifying Burbank” and “Beyond Burbank”.
Even though in just a few words it is impossible to describe all the brilliant, smart, wonderful and interesting artworks that this sections brings together this is a brief summary.
They are all divided according to the time and the place where they took place, using as guideline Burton’s place of birth: he grew up in the perfect immaculate Burbank, a town in California then pictured in Edward Scissorhands.
In the first section a collection of artworks and student films is shown, it is all production of the young Burton who was influenced and fascinated by animation, cartoons, television, children’s literature, Hammer horror films, Japanese monster movies and B-Grade science fiction. After studying at the California Institute of the Arts and impressing everyone with his abilities Burton completed a four-year apprenticeship at the Walt Disney Studios, all the artworks from this period are on display in “Beautifying Burbank ”. This section ends with the “Burtonarium”: an immersive black light environment featuring the awesome “Carousel ” a pretty merry-go-round realized in 2009. The last section is dedicated to Burton as a filmmaker. There are costumes from Alice in Wonderland, Batman and original puppets from his animations such as Nightmare Before Christmas.
The exhibition does not end here. There is more content to discover. It continues in the spectators’ curious and fascinated eyes. It continues in the art and the imagination of one of Hollywood’s most unique filmmakers.
Maria Perotto (4C) – Corrispondente dall’Australia