Live Art

Posted on 3 October, 2011

Van Gogh Alive!
Until 9 Oct 2011
ArtScience Museum

You step into a cold, dark room and night sight takes over. In between the vivid colors projected on the walls surrounding you, darkness. A classical repertoire performed, poignant and mysterious as the cello plays on.

 

Vincent Willem van Gogh is one of 21st century’s beloved artists — his life story so tragic you wonder if a historiographical investigation of it might suggest it romanticized. Yet, this is a platform that encourages a reading of the post-impressionist’s works apart from his biographical context.

 

Van Gogh Alive! is not your usual museum exhibition. Here, select works by the artist from his time in the French Riviera (188-1890) are choreographed as larger-than-life projections in a large, dark, and cavernous gallery betwixt an audio interpretation: the likes of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 and Delibes Lakmé’s Flower Duet. The music, contemplative, ominous and mysterious, elicits an emotional reading of both his brushstrokes and the artist himself.

 

Different? Yes. Expect a multimodal amalgamation of technology with art and an immersive, interactive experience with the masterpieces. Dance on The Starry Night, watch colors bring to life The Church at Auvers, consider poppies swaying in the wind—van Gogh’s muse in creating The Field of poppies. This experiential exhibition writes a shift in art appreciation.

Van Gogh Alive! ends its run on the 9th of October 2011 at the ArtScience Museum
at Marina Bay Sands. Tickets here.

 

By Huishan Aprilene Goh