Elmgreen & Dragset's Tomorrow At The V&A - Art, Theatre Or Film?

Tabish Khan
By Tabish Khan Last edited 125 months ago
Elmgreen & Dragset's Tomorrow At The V&A - Art, Theatre Or Film?
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg
Elmgreen & Dragset, Tomorrow. Installation images courtesy the artists and Victoria Miro, London. Photography Anders Sune Berg

Elmgreen and Dragset are the mischievous artistic duo responsible for the boy atop a rocking horse, formerly on the Fourth Plinth. They also recreated a hayloft for their last London exhibition.

For their latest show, Tomorrow, the pair have installed a set of rooms from a grand home within the V&A. Even though the 'house' feels antiquated, it has a lived-in feel with removed shoes on the floor, book cabinets open and a kitchen under renovation.

Unlike most museum exhibitions, visitors are able to take a seat on a chair, flick through the books and newspapers and generally make themselves at home, flying in the face of the general 'no touching' rule at the V&A.

A book, found at the entrance, is written in the form of a film script in which characters inhabit the house. Objects from the story may be found strewn across the home. The film script can take a good 90 minutes to read through, but browsing parts of it within the 'film set' brings the characters to life.

The artistic duo have also placed some of their trademark surreal items within the rooms including a polished gold maid and a vulture in the study, said to signify the art critic.

This is a unique crossover of film, theatre, literature and art and though not as visually arresting as the artists' previous work, it's a more engrossing experience.

Tomorrow: Elmgreen & Dragset is on at the V&A until 2 January. Admission is free.

Also still on at the V&A is the excellent Memory Palace — a cross between an art exhibition and a graphic novel. Tickets are £8.

Last Updated 05 October 2013