There are few exhibitions in this world that you visit and leave feeling so unimaginably touched, it brings tears to your eyes, but I can honestly say that after seeing, being immersed into Savage Beauty, the new Alexander McQueen retrospective at the V&A, I am wholeheartedly overwhelmed and can't really find the words to describe this powerful expression to the senses. The only other exhibition that has left me in this space was Sophie Calle's exhibition Rachel Monique at the Palais de Tokyo back in 2010.
When an exhibition touches your senses so deeply, the experience is truly monumental. You are transfixed into another universe, where time isn't important, silence encapsulates your mind and the only details you care for are within the walls and the objects that surround you. This afternoon, I was transported into a world of dark beauty, materiality and artistry that travels deep into your core. A sensory experience that touches you on every possible level, from the hard digital videos of the live runways, the intricate pattern cutting and assembly of fabrics to the mise-en scene laced with Classical scores. With every step you are stuck with more, more and more. Emotion builds, at times it is if you need to leave to take a breath, pause, and then plunge down deeper, darker before you need to resurface.
This exhibition was always going to touch me deeply, not only for the obvious reasons of being McQueen, but also for a more somber, sorrow note, that touches my heart ever so closely; that this exhibition would have been adored by my dearest friend, who the same year and having worked with McQueen, also committed suicide. This show, for me, feels almost like a binding of souls and although it brings tears to my eyes, makes me love this exhibition even more than I thought I could. It is a triumph of curation, where a true artist can change the way you feel forever.
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