Van Gogh Alive

I’ve been bombarded with the advertisements for the Van Gogh Alive exhibit at Spark Arena. To be fair, I’ve been inundated with the advertisements for this experience for every other city in the world, too. (Thanks, Facebook algorithm.) It looked interesting, possibly educational, and something different to try, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I was buying into when I purchased a family ticket.

I’m glad I did.

The exhibit is divided into three main areas. The first is more like a traditional art gallery with examples of Vincent Van Gogh’s work with some context. There was a big focus on La Chambre à Choucher because in the back corner of the room there was a real-life recreation of the bedroom designed for people to take the perfect picture for the ‘gram. My kids humoured me and let me take a picture of them, but they weren’t happy about not being able to play or jump on the bed in the corner. Overall, this room was the least exciting for them. Perhaps it would be better for older kids who are more into reading about the details of Van Gogh’s life and some details behind his work. I found myself in a very odd conversation with my six year old trying to explain the bit about Van Gogh giving part of his self-severed ear to a prostitute… which went about as well as you can imagine.

The second, main section of the exhibit was the multi-sensory experience touted in all of the advertisements. We walked in about a third of the way through the 35 minute loop, and found ourselves surrounded by monstrously large projections of Van Gogh’s work on huge screens. The kids only took a few looks at the large, vertical screens before becoming obsessed with the three projections on the floor. They happily danced on the projected paintings and jumped from colour to colour while the adults got to experience the larger exhibit which featured works from his Dutch beginnings, to his Japanese phase, to his work in Arles, and finally to his time at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Once my daughter really got into the whole immersion of it all, she entertained everyone with a very creative interpretive dance.

My only complaint was at the end of the 35 minute loop, we were subjected to huge advertisements by Sky TV and Porsche (sponsors). It was jarring and a real turn off in what was otherwise a creatively produced event.

The third and final bit of the exhibition was a carefully crafted sunflower photo room - again for creating the perfect picture for social media to increase the buzz about the event. The kids weren’t that excited about this one, either, but they nearly allowed for a good picture.

The whole thing took about an hour. If we had stayed in the first room longer it might be able to stretch to an hour and a half. If you haven’t yet been lured in by all of the online marketing, I’d recommend giving it a visit. It’s in Auckland until May 6.