FURNITURE

Study Area, Room 55

Level: 2

Room 55 is one of two study areas in the British Galleries. Visitors are encouraged to use the resources available here for further exploration of the ideas and objects in the galleries. On the computers there are style guides, video programmes and other interactives including the opportunity to contribute to the V&A's online history project.

Breathless

Also in the room is an installation, Breathless, by contemporary British artist, Cornelia Parker. Breathless, involves now defunct siilver-plated brass musical instruments acquired from old establishments and now suspended on stainless steel wire. These instruments were squashed by part of another age-old institution, Tower Bridge. The piece is an attempt to capture a number of different contradictions and is seen by the artist herself as a 'ghostly last gasp of the British Empire'.