Culture writer Fariha Uddin reviews Birmingham NEC’s immersive experience, Beyond Van Gogh, evaluating the boundary-breaking insights it provides into the artist’s life and work
Trigger warning: mentions of self-harm.
Experience the masterpieces of Van Gogh by becoming one of his canvases in the immersive exhibition at Birmingham NEC, Beyond Van Gogh . Through advanced technology, over 300 paintings from his oeuvre – such as self-portraits, Sunflowers, The Starry Night, and Almond Blossoms – have been projected onto gigantic, continuous screens, that wrap around for a 360-degree, multi-sensory experience. Not to mention, the paintings are projected onto the floors and over oneself, making the viewer an extension of Van Gogh’s works.
Prior to the exhibition, the introductory gallery gave an insight into Van Gogh’s life using poignantly selected quotes from his letters to his brother, Theo. Unlike the immersive gallery, these were displayed on several separated screens, bringing Van Gogh alive before experiencing his paintings.
Although it was helpful to learn about the interplay between his life, philosophies, and style of art, the screens were arranged in a long-winding course, and there were too many to read through. The brightness of the screens against the dark atmosphere of the gallery was also somewhat straining.
The empty floating frames are an interesting touch to the introductory gallery, as they give the impression that the paintings had been taken out and put elsewhere, and that the traditional art gallery viewing of Van Gogh’s works is to be disrupted within the next few minutes.
The paintings are projected onto the floors and over oneself, making the viewer an extension of Van Gogh’s works
The exhibition itself was emotionally charged, as the enlarged paintings were displayed with a cinematographic approach. Each artwork was either showcased individually or grouped with others which shared a similar theme.
For example, at one point there was an array of flowers from Van Gogh’s various flower-paintings. This moved beyond the boundaries of their own frames, and intertwined over and underneath flowers from other artworks.
The exhibition was accompanied by music, and interspersed with quotes (such as ‘I don’t know if you’ll understand that one can speak poetry just by arranging colours well, just as one can say comforting things in music’). You could clearly see the texture of the canvases too, including the brushstrokes and the pigments stacked adjacently to each other.
While the enlarged paintings emphasised the crafting of the paintings, they also left a tinge of discomfort, as the viewer is confronted with all the elements that made up the psyche of the ‘artist’ Van Gogh in a large scale: whether that is the portraitures of his friends, the view from his asylum, i.e., The Starry Night, or the coffeehouse in Place du Forum (Café Terrace at Night).
The use of movement was the most striking element of Beyond Van Gogh; for example, the crows swam across the blue sky and over the wheatfields, breathing life into Wheatfield with Crows. Some of the paintings were also stripped to their bones as the artwork was first sketched over the screens, before the digital canvas was slowly filled with colours.
The eyes within the portraits also blinked in a kind, soft manner, without startling the viewer; I found this to have a very grounding effect, especially as the exhibition can begin to overwhelm the senses after a while.
The introductory gallery gave an insight into Van Gogh’s life using poignantly selected quotes… bringing Van Gogh alive before experiencing his paintings
A niche touch to Beyond Van Gogh was emphasising how ‘Vincent’ was signed onto the paintings, often in unexpected places and in a myriad of colours, with the ‘V’ sometimes looking like a ‘U.’ This served as a nice reminder of the artist behind the paintings.
One negative to point out about Beyond Van Gogh is that it lacked a narrative thread in its cinematic presentation, which gave a slightly disorderly feeling to the exhibition. Perhaps that was the intended effect, given Van Gogh’s own tumultuous life, which led him to self-harm. The ending was also somewhat anticlimactic, and was difficult to discern whether it was nearing its conclusion until I looked around to see the gallery more than half-empty.
Beyond Van Gogh is definitely an exhibition to experience at the Birmingham NEC, especially in the company of friends and family; there is just too much to observe for a single pair of eyes, and you’ll often find yourself pointing out intricate details that your exhibition partner(s) might have missed, and vice versa.
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