London

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton4-1024x683.jpeg" alt="Surrounded by Tim Burton" class="wp-image-6161" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton4-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton4-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton4-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton4.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Muddy was one of the first through the doors of the just-opened <a href="https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-world-of-tim-burton" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The World of Tim Burton</a> exhibition at the Design Museum, and it&#8217;s every bit as creative (and wacky) as you&#8217;d expect. The last stop of a world tour which has lasted more than a decade, it&#8217;s a celebration of some of the most recognisable drawings, animations and characters in the arts over the last 50 years, and the mind that thought them up. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton2-1024x683.jpeg" alt="Tim Burton and Maria McLintock at The World of Tim Burton exhibition the Design Museum" class="wp-image-6159" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton2-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton2-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton2-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton2.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Primarily the exhibition is fun because of Burton&#8217;s wild imagination. Featuring more than 500 sketches, paintings, photos, films and sculptural installations dating way back to Burton&#8217;s school days, it traces the origins of his famous aesthetic, from a competition he won in his teens to design the sign on a rubbish bin (below), to his first (failed) stint at Disney, through his most famous stop-motion works and Hollywood films.



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Wherever on this journey they come from, there&#8217;s something special about Burton&#8217;s creations &#8211; whether they&#8217;re scary, grotesque, ugly or evil, there&#8217;s something unmistakably childishly beautiful about it all. Walking around the exhibition feels a bit like exploring a child&#8217;s mind: there&#8217;s a playful disorder to everything, and the vibe sways gently from innocent to weird to uneasy and back again. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="713" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton7-1024x713.jpeg" alt="Tim Burton earth" class="wp-image-6163" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton7-1024x713.jpeg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton7-300x209.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton7-768x535.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/Burton7.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



It&#8217;s also fun because it&#8217;s nostalgic. The list of Burton&#8217;s creations is mega, so for just about everyone in there there will be a few moments where you turn a corner to be confronted by a familiar face that you haven&#8217;t seen in decades. It takes you back in time and makes you feel things you haven&#8217;t felt in years. It feels like you&#8217;re wandering around Tim Burton&#8217;s mind, but it also feels a bit like wandering around your own.



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Tim Burton was at the press opening day Muddy attended (I know, pretty cool), and during a Q&amp;A session he revealed his ideas always start with a drawing. He&#8217;s been an animator, director, producer, writer &#8211; but through it all, he&#8217;s remained a napkin doodler, and with every new project, that&#8217;s where it is born.



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Particular memory joggers include the real Catwoman cat suit (me-ow), the dress worn by Lisa Marie in Mars Attacks!, and perhaps most impressively, Edward Scissorhands&#8217; scissorhands. 



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I asked curator Maria McLintock whether she thought this exhibition was well suited to families. &#8220;Absolutely,&#8221; she told me, and suggested that Burton&#8217;s work has always had a strong connection with children because he&#8217;s an adult with a childlike imagination and desire to break free from the confines of reality. And who hasn&#8217;t felt that?



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&#8220;Burton&#8217;s people are patchwork people,&#8221; McLintock told me, &#8220;and I think this is why so many people connect with his work&#8221;. His characters are dramatically imperfect, vividly plastic, recklessly scrawled or clumsily fashioned with the seams showing. They come to life for the length of a stop-motion film, but their life is an illusion, and here they stand on display as themselves, namely, as objects. The world of Tim Burton somehow speaks to things we see in our own world but can&#8217;t articulate.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/figurines-1024x683.jpg" alt="The Nightmare before Christmas figurines" class="wp-image-6207" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/figurines-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/figurines-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/figurines-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/10/figurines.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



But let&#8217;s not over-egg the omelette &#8211; it&#8217;s not that deep. And it doesn&#8217;t need to be. Burton&#8217;s drawings are wonderful, and there&#8217;s enough little faces in here to keep you entertained for a good hour and smiling all afternoon.



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Once you&#8217;ve filled your boots on kooks and nostalgia, poke your head outside and you&#8217;re on Kensington High Street. You wouldn&#8217;t dare miss the chance for a spot of shopping or flâneusing in the cafés. Pop into <a href="https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Leighton House</a> (good museum, great café), the lovely Scandy coffee House <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hjemkensington/?hl=en">Hjem</a> or take a stroll in Hyde Park via waterfront café <a href="https://www.colicci.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Colicci</a>. Don&#8217;t sell yourself short on the shopping either: with COS, L. K. Bennett, UNIQLO, Massimo Dutti and Reiss all in one place, you&#8217;ll want to leave ample time.



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The World of Tim Burton will not be the exhibition of the year, but I loved it. It&#8217;s quirky, it&#8217;s personal, nostalgic, eerie and most importantly, it&#8217;s fun for everyone, big and small.



&#8216;<a style="font-style: italic" href="https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-world-of-tim-burton" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The World of Tim Burton</a>&#8216;, The Design Museum, Kensington, London W8 6AG

Review: The World of Tim Burton, The Design Museum

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