( MENAFN - The Conversation) “Like walking around in a weird, beautiful funhouse.” That's how Tim Burton described his private viewing of The World of Tim Burton at the exhibition's opening at London's Design Museum. A travelling circus that initially took shape at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and has since visited 14 cities in 11 countries, the exhibition now reaches its grand finale in expanded, remixed form in Burton's adopted hometown.
At the press conference, he admitted to feeling somewhat anxious about it. This points to one of the underlying tensions of the exhibition itself – the contrast between laying bare an intensely personal creative process, and Burton's global megastar status. The exhibition's collaboration with the Design Museum has enabled its re-framing as an exploration of Burton's“design practice” (in curator Maria McClintock's words).
It traces the complex path from Burton's initial sketches to their realisation on screen. In this respect, the exhibition is successful. Visitors get a sense of the holistic development of Burton's ideas from preliminary drawings to their realisation by puppet-makers and set and costume designers.
Unrealised film projects and personal artworks are also included. This provides a unique insight into the director's creative process. The work itself, moreover, is joyous – a riot of colour and fizzing line.
The Burton that emerges is restlessly inventive. We see not only his prolific sketches in pen and in.