Immersive van Gogh
My love for Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh is without question, my favorite artist. I feel some sort of bond from not only the battles with mental health issues, but also the struggle to find others accepting of your work. In a world of ever-changing art, he was doing something completely different, and refused to compromise. It wasn’t until many years after his death that people started to respect his work for what it is. If it wasn’t for Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (his sister-in-law), we’d probably still never know of Vincent van Gogh. You can read more about her here.
One of my favorite quotes, and it’s not from Vincent himself, but from a movie about him called At Eternity’s Gate, is “Maybe God made me a painter for people who aren't born yet.” I know that the real Vincent felt this way, and so do I. I guess that’s why I have such a deep admiration for him.
“Maybe God made me a painter for people who aren't born yet.” -From the movie ‘At Eternity’s Gate’ (about the life of Vincent van Gogh)
The Immersive Experience
We purchased two FLEX tickets for the Columbus, OH show. It was at the Lighthouse ArtSpace, on Polaris Parkway. The venue was perfect for the Immersive van Gogh experience. The FLEX tickets were a few dollars more, but that allowed us the flexibility of arriving either two hours before/after our allotted time. This was perfect since we were driving several hours to see the show, and any small delay could have caused us to miss the show entirely. The Premium FLEX tickets also include a limited edition poster, and a seat cushion rental, just in case you aren’t lucky enough to find a bench inside the venue.
The show runs for a little over 30 minutes and is on a continuous loop. It doesn’t necessarily matter when you arrive, because you can stay and watch it several times if you’d like. We ended up watching it three times, from various spots inside the venue, so that we could take it all in from different perspectives. The soundtrack matched the experience perfectly. I have a playlist (in order of song played) here.
With the 360 degree floor to ceiling projection, there were times when it felt like the room itself was moving- either from side to side, or up and down. For those with any type of motion sickness, I could see this being a minor problem, so it might be necessary to cover your eyes when this happens.
Overall, I’d highly recommend it. Everything about it was perfect. Even the gift shop at the end was a nice surprise. It was much larger, and had more things for sale than I anticipated. We purchased a book about the Immersive van Gogh exhibit. There are also different displays to take your picture with.
Immersive van Gogh is a must for any art lover, especially those fans of Vincent. Go and see it now or you’ll definitely regret it. Here’s a link— find a city near you.
