V&A Dundee will curate its first major exhibition – as the museum revealed tartan and plastic as the focus of upcoming displays in 2022 and 2023.
The two lead exhibits will look at famed Scottish fabric tartan and the journey of once “magical” material plastic – two different but “equally powerful” areas of design.
Tartan, opening in April 2023, will take a “radical” new look at one of the world’s best-known fabrics and “celebrate the global story of a unique pattern” noting its ability to connect communities, express tradition and inspire design.
Tartan will be the first major exhibition curated by V&A Dundee with consulting curator Jonathan Faiers of the University of Southampton.
Director of V&A Dundee Leonie Bell said: “Tartan will be the first major exhibition curated by V&A Dundee, staged during the fifth year since the museum opened.
“It is a timely opportunity to look again at this historic and famous cloth and the ways notions of Scottishness and tradition have been designed and subverted over centuries through one fabric.
“Tartan will explore the global and enduring role of tartan today as a cloth that is love, loathed and lives on.”
Following on from the Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer exhibition – running until September 2022 – will be Plastic: Remaking Our World which will run from October 29, 2022-February 5, 2023.
The exhibit promises to chart the fortunes of the material and encourage visitors to think afresh about the promise and problems of the “extraordinary material”.
Beginning with the question “how did we get here?” and the innovation of plastic the exhibit will present the story from invention to ubiquity and the challenge of plastic pollution today as one of the world’s most urgent issues.
Bell said: “Plastic: Remaking Our World will explore how design can make powerful promises for the future that can turn into environmental challenges, while also looking to design’s role in solving the global problem of plastic pollution.”
The V&A – which opened in September 2018 – welcomed over a million visitors in its first 500 days.
The museum stands at the centre of a £1 billion transformation of Dundee’s waterfront and is the first ever dedicated design museum in Scotland.
Bell said: “Design is a critical part of everyone’s lives and as Scotland’s design museum we engage with design in all sorts of ways, from celebrating the wonder and innovation it brings to encouraging debate about its potential to address challenges.”
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