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THE MESA TRIBUNE | AUGUST 22, 2021
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Van Gogh comes to life this week in Valley BY ALEX GALLAGHER GetOut Staff Writer
V
incent Van Gogh’s art has been sweeping the nation with its revival in the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit and now fans of his work will be �locking to Scottsdale to see it. The digitally interactive exhibits – which span 500,000 cubic feet of projector screens – opens Thursday, Aug. 26, at Lighthouse Artspace in Old Town and will run through Nov. 28. “This show is a new way of looking at art,” Immersive Van Gogh Creative Director Rowan Doyle said. “On one hand it is an art exhibit, but that’s only the beginning,” Corey Ross, President of Lighthouse Productions said. “Technically it’s a short-animated �ilm.” The exhibit offers several ways for guests to explore the many works of Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch painter who is best known for paintings like “The Starry Night,” “Sun�lowers” and several selfportraits. “Van Gogh was the hi-tech artist of his day,” Ross said. “His inspiration and his ability to capture ‘The Starry Night’ was a technological innovation.” Beyond his postmortem fame for innovation and creativity as an artist, Van Gogh also has gained notoriety for his battle with mental health – which culminated in him cutting off his own ear and eventually taking his life. “I think Van Gogh as a subject matter works well because dif�iculties he had with depression and isolation have become more relatable,” Ross said. “When you come out into these galleries and realize that he struggled with the same things that many of us have had to in the last year and that the art has transcended the troubles that he had, people were �inding that cathartic and inspirational, so I think that’s part of why the show has become part of the zeitgeist.” The last years of Van Gogh’s life have become the most studied time of his
Among the exhibits are several of Van Gogh’s self portraits. (PabloRobles/Tribune Staff Pho-
tographer )
life, and the exhibit offers more of a re�lection of what may have been �lashing through Van Gogh’s mind before his passing created by videographer Massi-
miliano Siccardi. “This is really a �ilm that Massimiliano Siccardi has created and the way he explains it is he’s trying to capture what
More than 500,000 square feet of screens create an immersive experience for exhibit attendees. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)
might have �lashed before Van Gogh’s eyes the moments before he passed away,” Ross said. The 40-minute �ilm, played on a continuous loop, features visual representations of some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works – synchronized with music created by composer Luca Longobardi – across walls covered by projection screens that re�lect onto the �loor of the exhibit, giving viewers an immersive experience. Beyond the main exhibit, Immersive Van Gogh offers several other attractions that help understand the mysterious life of the famed artist. The exhibit has a timeline of the artist’s life and quotes from some of the 800 letters he penned, mostly to his brother Theo. In total, there are over 40 paintings featured and over 400 images have been licensed as part of the exhibit. “To have a show like this, which is the �irst thing that many people have experienced coming out of their homes and coming in to see any type of entertainment or exhibit has been very rewarding for our audiences,” Ross said. There are several measures in place to encourage social distancing within the exhibit like circles for people to stand in the main exhibit and tickets that can be purchased to attend at a certain time of the day. “We give people a time to arrive so we can control the volume of people in the gallery, but we don’t give people a time to leave, so people will often come in and stay for a couple iterations of it,” Ross said. VanGogh is the �irst exhibit to inhabit Lighthouse Productions, which used to be the of�ice space for corporate tenants like Carvana. “Lighthouse Artspace Scottsdale is really a new cultural art space that merges art, technology and immersive world
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