Image Credit : Photography by Gareth Gardner and Nissen Richards Studio. Animations by Nissen Richards Studio.
Project Overview
‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ is a major new exhibition at London’s Kensington Palace. Set in Victoria’s childhood home where she also learned that she had become Queen at the age of 18, the exhibition marks the 200th anniversary of her birth.
Based on new curatorial research, ‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ offers different perspectives and a more nuanced look at her life. It re-introduces Victoria as a young woman and explores her role as Queen and Empress, but also as mother and wife, and goes beyond the carefully managed public image of a monarch to reveal the private life of a wife, mother and grandmother. On display are rare survivals of Queen Victoria’s private wardrobe, including beautifully crafted dresses, hats and jewellery. A simple cotton petticoat and a pair of fashionable silver boots are a stark contrast to the black gowns she wore later in life to express her grief after the death of Albert.
The exhibition also explores Victoria's complex love affair with India, from the story behind the Koh-i-noor diamond to her friendship with the deposed Maharajah Duleep Singh. Giving voice to the communities who still live with the result of the complex legacy of Empire was crucial and contemporary poems written by women from the South Asian community are threaded throughout.
The exhibition includes two creative collaborations: Jane Wilgoose’s installation examines Victoria’s mourning and grief, and Benjamin Tasse’s cinematic score evokes feelings and emotion.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Pippa Nissen
Eleanor Grierson
Terry Hearnshaw
Project Brief
The world’s perception of Queen Victoria as dour old woman in black dress is largely the result of erroneous interpretations and the shaping of an image after her death. Her diaries were edited by her daughter Beatrice and her biographers told her story with misogynistic undertones.
Nissen Richards Studio were invited by Historic Royal Palaces to turn this idea on its head. Our brief was to bring out the person behind a Queen and allow visitors of all ages to find a personal connection and relevance in the story of Victoria’s life through Historic Royal Palaces’ world-class collections.
Our exhibition design set out to surprise visitors, presenting a colourful, vibrant and multi-sensory experience which challenges the perceptions and attitudes to Victoria. We examine Victoria as a mother, wife and grandmother as well as a monarch, grieving widow and Empress, and transport visitors to Victoria’s world in all its complexity, encouraging them to reflect on her phenomenal impact both as a woman and as a Queen.
Project Innovation/Need
Taking inspiration from Victorian children’s toys and stage sets we created environments, animations and unique graphic treatments to set up a layered experience that could engage visitors of different ages with the vibrancy of Victoria’s world.
Rather than simply annotating collections with labels, we built environments around each object display to give a sense of Victoria’s life. Rich contextual imagery gives life to clothing and artworks, and a replica tent provides a world where objects relating to Victoria’s obsession with India are displayed. We also worked closely with the composer Benjamin Tasse to create a distinct atmospheric mood for each area of the exhibition.
Throughout ‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ are intricate miniature stage sets inspired by Victorian peep shows, each giving a view to Victoria’s world. When peering in, we wanted visitors to feel delighted, excited and intrigued, as if they were discovering something for themselves. The animations we designed provide a visual way to explore Victoria's world.
Carol Swords at Historical Royal Palaces said: ‘our visitors have really engaged with this exhibition. The creative way it has been designed has enabled us to tell complex stories in a clever and imaginative way. It was a pleasure to work with Nissen Richards on this project; their imagination and experience has enabled us to produce a significant and beautiful exhibition’
Design Challenge
Kensington Palace is a Scheduled Ancient Monument which means that no set-works can be fixed to floors, walls or ceilings. We came up with a solution to this challenge by designing freestanding structures that were carefully created to suit each room.
We wanted to find ways to convey the personalities and experiences behind the costumes. Real life arms were photographed and used to design graphic arms that were carefully added to the costumes to evoke a person. Backdrop images were added to create the sense of a place or a person.
The exhibition displays a large number of objects and tells complex stories in a relatively small space. To maximise impact, the exhibition build had to serve multiple purposes to tell stories on many levels. We designed and embedded miniature graphic theatrical sets into the build around the showcases and layered graphic animations on to walls, maximising the use of structures and surfaces. Carol Swords at Historic Royal Palaces said: ‘…peppered throughout the exhibition are exquisitely crafted peepholes and animations. Our younger and international audiences have told us how much they appreciate this visual storytelling.’
Working with rare and sensitive museum objects meant that conservation was a priority, but rather than compromising on materials, we devised ways to house object labels outside of showcases, allowing the inside of the showcases to remain uncluttered and impactful.
Sustainability
The exhibition reuses a number of showcases that Historic Royal Palaces already owned. We designed new set-works to repurpose the existing cases which allowed them to be presented differently to suit the overall exhibition design.
We also designed and commissioned a number of new showcases, all built to the modern standards of sustainability in terms of their construction and climate control. The new cases were all designed to be flexible and multi-functional so they can be used in future exhibitions at Kensington Palace.
The build was all in timber frame with very little waste and the miniature theatrical stage sets will all be kept and repurposed after the exhibition closes.
Pop-Ups, Display, Exhibit & Set Design
This award celebrates innovative and creative design for a temporary building or interior, exhibition, pop up site, installation, fixture or interactive element. Consideration given to materials, finishes, signage and experience.
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