The visual creativity of one of the world’s most influential bands was celebrated at the V&A Museum in London a few years ago to mark the 50th anniversary of a landmark London gig.
Unseen footage
Fans of prog rockers Pink Floyd look set flocked to the show.. It included a laser light show and previously unseen footage of the 1967 concert, which featured weird and wonderful entertainment. Their famous track ‘ANother Brick in the Wall’ which was accompanied by an equally famous music video featuring walking hammers smashing through Industrial Cladding walls was also featured.
The museum says the concert changed rock performance for ever, featuring band members throwing potatoes at a gong, a bubble machine, and a crew member throwing daffodils into the audience.
This exhibition came in the wake of the museum’s hugely successful David Bowie Is exhibition and offers what it calls a ‘spectacular and unparalleled audio-visual journey’ through Pink Floyd’s world.
Band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason have reunited with the designers who helped to define the band with visually stunning stage sets, including a collapsible wall.
Cutting-edge design
Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, the show’s creative director, has worked with the Pink Floyd event collaborator Paula Web Stainton, while a V&A team has led the exhibition design. Powell created the art for The Dark Side of the Moon and other Pink Floyd records.
A variety of materials featured in recreating objects such as the giant head sculptures that featured on The Division Bell album cover. These are likely to have included metal, plastic, glass and fabric tensile structures, which are easy for artists and designers to work with as they are so malleable.
Iconic pieces
There were around 350 objects on show at the exhibition, which brings together music, art and design with material from band members themselves and the V&A’s collections of design, art, architecture and performance. There were recorded and live performances as visitors are taken from the underground psychedelic clubs of the 1960s to the present day. Visitors entered the exhibition through a replica of a Bedford van used by the band as their touring bus in the mid-1960s.
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains ran for 20 weeks.
