Tartan Exhibition; V&A Dundee, 1st Apr 2023 -14th Jan 2024.
Tartan is all about rigid lines crossing in patterns. Therefore it’s ironic that I had to ask myself was ‘What makes this exhibition flow?’. The curators considered this key when designing the layout of this exhibition. @plaidlondon’s Instagram shows how the floor layout for Tartan was created. Tartan doesn’t take the stereotypical perspective of retelling the history of the patterned cloth and its significance to Scottish events like the Jacobite Revolution and World Wars. It’s very educational, showing how the identity of tartan isn’t just claimed by Scottish uprisings, but has recurred in fashion throughout recent history, creating an identity disparate from purely national dress.
There are generally two ways of engaging with art: passively, as an observer, or interactively, participating in an activity involving the piece. Manet was denied space in the Paris Salon to exhibit Dejeuner sur l’herbe (1863) because, despite being an observed work, the Salon believed the painting to be too provocative. Engaging passively with art changed when Marcel Duchamp exhibited ‘With Hidden Noise’ in 1916, when he challenged his audience to participate in his work. This direct engagement between the artist and the viewer is equally important to artists Adrien Segal and Nancy Holt; this is borne out in California Water Rights (Segal, 2017) and Sun Tunnels (Holt, 1976). Similarly this critique of the Tartan exhibition at Dundee’s V&A looks at its interactiveness and the involvement of visitors in the exhibition.
Stepping into the exhibition, the curator’s choice of titling the first chapter of your journey ‘Tartan and The Grid’ provides the audience with an insight before walking through the history of Scotland’s iconic fabric. Entering the exhibition space, you are enveloped in sound. Lighting on the floor depicts a tartan grid; this may emphasis that tartan is at the heart of this exhibition but this level of intensive interaction can feel overwhelming.
The exhibition’s structure is based on the idea of a tartan pattern unravelling. The initial space is lofty, bright and airy; the ceiling height along with the latticed walls in the centre make the room feel impressive, even with partitions. However, as you progress along ‘the journey’, space becomes more claustrophobic and somewhat confused. Perhaps the concept of ‘the journey’ isn’t quite successful because, by losing the thread, the visitor is left disorientated. The Innovating Tartan section is informative and forms the core element but the lighting and text font size supporting exhibits affects the flow of visitors, causing them to slow down to take in the information presented. Another issue here is the way that sounds are carried from other corners of the exhibition space, detracting from the value of the exhibits. An element which clearly perturbed some visitors during my visit was the unsettling juxtaposition of a little girl’s tartan dress beside a sexually explicit piece by Alan Cummings. There was clearly a reason for this, but that reason is not readily apparent.
Tartan does have some interactive elements for audience participation, such as coloured acrylic plastic slides on the lightbox to create one’s own tartan weave, and a display case with tartan designs on different types of material. But the participatory activities are only located at the beginning of the historical sections. Some bookable interactive workshops are available in separate event spaces, but it may have been more appropriate to incorporate such activities within the exhibition space itself. The ‘Give-it-a-Go’ loom engages with visitors as a method of whetting their appetite as they approach the exhibition. However, visitors seem hesitant to interact with it, and this can be symptomatic of a space which generates an impression of passive engagement, something Duchamp set out to dispel. While the V&A is intrinsically a museum where participation is discouraged through the way artefacts are protected, perhaps physical interaction could be facilitated through more innovative design.
One element of the exhibition which works particularly well is the Black Watch theatrical production (above). This is the most dynamic element, where audience witnesses the story of tartan’s military history in a mini auditorium. With actors using soldiers’ original dialogue, the video’s narrative is authentic, with the language somewhat colourful. The content of the video is focussed, concise, and of an ideal length. The audio envelopes the viewer but can also be heard elsewhere in the exhibition space.
It’s regrettable that the ‘journey’ concept struggles because of the combined conflicting sounds. Difficult lighting in darkened areas can also impact on the enjoyment of the space as a whole. It’s possible that the Tartan and Power and Transcendental Tartan exhibit suffers as a result; I noticed that visitors were less engaged here than in any other part of the exhibition. The experience of visiting Tartan was informative and although I personally enjoyed it, I am not sure whether I would need to visit a second time.