Is it Art?
Screaming schoolgirls, hundreds of paparazzi, nose to tail limos. Just another typical opening night for an exhibition at one of our national museums…No, it wasn’t Hogarth at the Tate, but Kylie at the V&A, and it was crazy.
The Queen of Pop made an entrance worthy of the Queen herself, to open an exhibition of her costumes, photographs and CD covers. It was a cross between the Harrods sale and a bad day at Heathrow, and I realised I was already too old for my new job as I began to think the music was too loud and there were too many people.
Is it art? Or to be more accurate, as the V&A is the home of design and costume, is it appropriate? It’s a legitimate question to ask, especially as the V&A has been in this territory before (an ace Caff with quite a nice museum attached…). The answer, of course, is an emphatic yes. It’s a celebration of pop culture, a homage to a remarkable story, and a reminder that the pop industry is one of the manufactures, an enormous, and enormously professional and creative industry. But above all, it’s just really good fun. It will draw the crowds, make the place less formidable, and open minds. Not only is it worth doing, it’s worth doing more of.