Immersive van Gogh show opens
Four-year-old Abby Brown dances and tiptoes across the concrete floor, trying to capture the swirls of light as Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night takes shape along the floor and floats up the walls.
Music is swirling too as van Gogh’s most famous painting comes to life through light projectors on a massive space inside the Halifax Exhibition Centre on Monday. It’s the second day of Beyond van Gogh: An Immersive Experience.
“She is loving it,” says Abby’s mom Kate Brown. “She loves the colours and the movement so far.”
Coincidentally, two van Gogh immersive shows were scheduled to run in Halifax this month. Beyond van Gogh was originally slated to run in the Halifax Convention Centre in February but it switched to May at the Exhibition Centre. Van Gogh 360º, a very similar show, was scheduled to open later this month at the Forum.
But a deal was reached between the two shows, which have worked together before, and they announced late last week that only the Beyond van Gogh show would run. Ticketholders for 360º will be transferred to the Beyond show.
Jackie Norrie, event management consultant with Van Gogh 360º, said the experience would have been very similar.
She said Festival House Inc., which is producing Van Gogh 360º, was happy to partner with Beyond again and end any confusion over the two shows. The 360º show will open in Charlottetown, P.E.I. in August.
MORE TO HIM THAN LOST EAR
Immersive van Gogh exhibits are popping up all over right now for a few reasons. One is that his paintings are in the public domain, but more than that, explains art historian Fanny Curtat, is van Gogh is a name everyone knows.
He’s a global phenomenon, she says, even if all people might know is that he’s the artist who cut off his ear and painted Starry Night from inside his room of an asylum.
“That speaks to the power of his work,” says Curtat, who helped create the show. “There’s something still incredibly relevant about him.”
Van Gogh is well known for struggling with poverty and mental health, Curtat points out, but he was able to transcend and express his feelings into incredible works of art. Because he was dealing with so many problems yet still able to see beauty in the world, Curtat says he’s the artist we need right now.
“When you look at his work, you don’t see the starkness that he’s so known for, you see what he wanted us to see, which was the solutions he was finding,” she says. “The power of nature, the power of colour, the healing qualities of nature, the way it was helping him, healing him
and that’s what he wanted to share with the world.”
His work is also so easy to transcribe into a light show, she says, because it already looks like it’s moving.
“This is great, but it’s not a replacement for the original work. These are very much complementary experiences,” Curtat says. “When you’re in front of an original van Gogh, it’s already looks like it’s leaping toward you because the colours are so vibrant.”
THREE ROOMS OF VAN GOGH
The Beyond exhibit has three sections: the introduction hall, the waterfall room and the immersive room.
Light panels in the introduction hall provide background of van Gogh’s story, along with several quotes from his letters to his brother Theo.
The next room makes people stop in their tracks. Curtat says they think of the waterfall room as a portal that prepares the audience for what’s next.
“It prepares the mind and body for something that can be destabilizing, which is walking into a room where everything moves around you,” she says.
It’s a waterfall of colour and lights streaming down the wall over the floor. Images from van Gogh’s self portraits float down along with the colours.
But it’s the immersive room where the magic really happens, Curtat says. This is where people can set foot inside his paintings.
“It’s really a unique way of looking into his work, of experiencing the art and his paintings and getting to know him more,” Curtat says.
For artist Lorna Mckillip, who visited on Monday, it’s hard to describe what it’s like to be physically inside a projection of a painting.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in Halifax,” she says. “It is immersive, that’s the right word for it, because you’re in the paintings.”
At one point, van Gogh’s self portraits line the room. It can be disconcerting to see the artist blink, or notice smoke curling up from his pipe.
The show was created in Oct. 2020 in Montreal by Paquin Entertainment Group and Normal Studio, and is visiting cities around North America, South America and Europe. It is open for viewing – including regular yoga events – at the Halifax Exhibition Centre until June 26.