Tim Walker: Wonderful Things review — Escaping the mundane to a world of fantasy

Visitors to Wonderful Things — the exhibition which seeks to unearth the fantastical mind of Tim Walker — exit the gallery through the pages of the photographer’s scrapbook. Blown up to floor-to-ceiling height by Shona Heath, a collaborator with Walker and set designer of the V&A project, the book is splayed open and scribbled with the following phrase: “Ends are always followed by beginnings. Something new could start now right here. There really are so many wonderful things.”

To appreciate this sentiment is to appreciate the urgent relevance of Walker whose fashion fairytales are all about escaping the mundane to a world of fantasy where white horses appear alongside supermodels in stately homes or supersized dolls.

The thrust of this show is a series of newly created shoots which take their inspiration from items foraged by Walker from the V&A’s archive. Among them Box of Delights, an embroidered trinket box given from 1675, which provides inspiration for a story featuring club kid James Spencer and an interpretation of the London club scene. “It’s a place we hide our secrets,” writes Walker, who offers all visitors a one-to-one tour of the exhibition via pass notes.

A plaster-cast leaf, which was created to protect the modesty of the replica of Michelangelo’s David during visits from Queen Victoria in the 1850s, is a starting point for a visual study of homoerotica.

Despite Walker’s credentials as a fashion photographer, clothing is secondary in this showcase. His globally adored and instantly recognisable subjects — see Tilda Swinton who features in portraits inspired by the clothing of the formidable Edith Sitwell — also play a minor role. The star of this show is Walker’s imagination. His message: in a world of uncertainty, the ability to escape it all is a truly wonderful thing.

From Saturday until March 8 (vam.ac.uk)