'Shooting Stars' Exhibition

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Fri 21 May 2021 - Fri 31 Dec 2021

British journalist and photographer Carinthia West has played a lot of roles in her time but this exhibition explores her stunning camera work. Documenting her life in 1970s California with an astonishing array of megastars, she has created an exhibition that immerses visitors in Britain and America in the 1970s. The exhibits are made up of candid and unposed snaps, with clothes and objects which represent both Britain and America in the decade of 1970s.



A mix of photography, fashion museum and interior recreations await you in a Bath atone-built gallery, which is right next to American Museum and directly behind their excellent cafe. The exhibition is relatively small but each installation and photograph is compelling.


Carinthia West herself says 'I look up at the walls and see all of my friends'. Nothing unusual about that I suppose but when your friends are Mick Jagger, Anjelica Houston, Shelley Duvall and Neil Young, then they become magical. What I loved is that all of the stars are snapped in their leisure time rather than in the critical and at times, clinical public eye. There are shots of a football match organised by Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones anxiously awaiting the birth of Ronnie and Chrissie Wood's child, and even some snaps from the back of a car, on the way to the beach.



Many of these photographs were rediscovered in Carinthia West's attic recently and so, have laid dormant for decades. They do have a raw and untouched feeling about them and in our modern society of materialism and air-brushed superficiality, there is something even more lovely about them. My favourite part of the exhibition was the three recreations of 1970s domestic interiors, using well-loved mementos from the past. This method of recreating spaces perfectly complements the many spaces in American Museum, which were bought in the USA, then transported and painstakingly reconstructed in Bath.





This wonderful snapshot of Britain and America has free entry, if you pay the modest £9 fee to have a look around American Museum. It is wheelchair accessible and has a lovely shop, currently with a Christmas theme. Hurry there though, there are only 17 more days to see the exhibition!



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!date 21/05/2021 -- 31/12/2021
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