Furnish me with a narrative
I have waxed lyrical before about the visible storage that the Metropolitan Museum in New York uses for its American furniture collection. I love how this allows you to wander freely around a vast collection of beautiful things, picking up information as and when you want it from computer screens at the end of each bay. I am also a big fan of the visible storage used by the V&A in its Ceramics galleries, refurbished three years ago. I have to admit to a slight sense of disappointment, therefore, on visiting their new Furniture gallery, when I found that it does not embrace the same aesthetic. Rather it is a simply but beautifully designed and structured single room, using key pieces to tell the story of furniture.
Whichever end of the room you enter, you are met with a simple interpretation panel telling you that the gallery is structured with a chronological run of key pieces down the centre and sections dealing with different techniques, or key makers/designers down each side. Exactly like the non-visible-storage half of the ceramics galleries then. The design is low-key but effective with all the furniture raised on white islands and one key item in each section highlighted on a slatted black strip. The interpretation is on touch-screen consoles which give you information about each object, along with a simple intro text, and often a panel showing a set of tools or step-by-step production methods. In the centre of the gallery is an ultra-modern interactive which gives you information on each material when you touch the relevant sample on the table. Talk about meaning in matter!
Mostly this all works well. The different technique sections - lacquer, rush-work, carving, turning, upholstery, veneer, marquetry and inlay etc - allow for nice juxtapositions of furniture from different periods, some lovely sets of tools, and very effective touchable examples of pieces at different stages. The sections highlighting different makers/designers allow some interesting in-depth stories. It's always good to see Chippendale and Lloyd Wright getting their fair share of praise! But, I felt the chronological run down the centre got a little confused as there was no central narrative telling me what marked out furniture in different periods, simply information on each individual piece. Beautiful as all of these were, I didn't feel they really gave me a story of change over time against the fairly timeless sense of technique which the surrounding sections give.
The gallery feels, in fact, rather like a 3D collections online into which you can walk and pull objects out of a conveyor belt. This is helped of course by the touch-screens creating the same sense with the information. I like the range, but not being a furniture specialist, I'd like to be furnished with a little more history too.