Review- Alice in Sunderland

A review of an exhibition help in Sunderland, UK, in March, 2007:

“Curiouser and curiouser” was how Lewis Carrol’s Alice described her adventures in Wonderland. The same description can be used for the tenuous links that create Brian Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland exhibition.

A collection of comic strips create a journey through the history of Sunderland parodying Carrol’s classic tale. Along the way Talbot, in a cartoon series of alter-egos, throws in a local fable and some references to the streets of the North-Eastern city.

The vague connection made by Talbot between Carrol and the city is central to the theme of the pieces, but more time is taken in a perplexed state figuring where Sunderland fits into the author’s life and of his Victorian contemporaries, who are also mentioned.

Talbot works closely with the University of Sunderland, and his skills as a lecturer definitely come out in this gallery. From the initial series of slides, which incorporate some of the wonder of Lewis Carrol’s imagination and madness, the exhibition gradually take a turn for the worse as you follow the pages around the room.

Clever references to Carrol and lines from Alice in Wonderland are replaced by lecturous verse akin to a Monday morning seminar. The illustrations of Gin Lane and Beer Street are methodically broken down which, by the way, serves no purpose to the greater cause of the work.

The passion for Sunderland is evident in the work, but the style that the exhibition has been created in seems manufactured for the pun in the title. Alice in Sunderland promises a marvellous account of the city from the eyes of imagination and reminiscence, but instead it smacks of a younger sibling craving for attention.

Sunderland often lives in the shadow of its more illustrious neighbour Newcastle, not least for culture and history. To the common observer Sunderland is a city in post-shipyard decline, and even to the average inhabitant the place reeks of demise. What Talbot has done is attempt to instil a little bit of interest back into his subject.

The changes of style as you follow the stories cleverly reflect their subject. The fable of the Lambton Worm is created in a gothic theme. Theatrical shadows are cast across the wise old woman depicted, and the shining night is cast in a stream of light. In the opening sequence, the madness of the mother ewe and white rabbit are humorously combined with Talbot himself as he enters Sunderland’s Empire Theatre.

However, while Talbot tumbles down the rabbit hole into the land of the Mackems, he neglects to take anyone else with him. The connection between Sunderland and Carrol (who, it appears, may have visited Sunderland a couple of times) is lost along the way, and the grand stage that is set in the first collection of illustrations transforms into an educational monologue.

So, class, what has been learnt today? Yes, there is some history to Sunderland hidden in the depths of the River Wear and up the hill to Penshaw Monument. Talbot has told us to start looking, but on this basis I think I will find another rabbit hole to look down.