Exhibiton: Vincent Van Gogh
The Lume, Melbourne Exhibition Centre
As humans, we need art. We need it to sooth our souls. To pacify us. To touch our hearts. To make us think. To transport us to other times and places. Then there are our favourite artists, who can get to the core of our beings at the stroke of a brush. For me, spending half an hour with Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring will go down as one of the best days of my life. I always go back to the Wilton Diptych any time I'm in London. Those angels are amazing.
What Lume have done is made the words Vincent van Gogh accessible to a larger group by taking his paintings, blowing them up and presenting them as a light, sound and smell installation at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Lume is an immersive experience. The price of the ticket gets you into the exhibition where you can wander around walls illuminated with Van Gogh's most famous, and not so famous paintings. Accompanying the light show is a curated sound scape with music from recognisable famous composers.
And it is just delightful.
After a quick trip around an intial display providing facts abut Van Gogh and his life, you enter the auditorium proper, and from there, it's up to you how you take it in, how long you spend in there and where you take it in from.
We had a quick wander around before settling on a bench to take in the 45 minute show.
It's delightful.
Although not the real thing, seeing these painting blown up as a light show provides and opportunity to experience the paintings on another level. You can sit or like or walk around, taking your time as you view these paintings in another way. Adding to this, some of the illuminations have movement involved, like the Starry Night painiting, which tooks the stars and made them move, or a French town which has a train driving through it. It's magical.
In addition to this, the exhibition has a smellscape, not that you could smell much from behind the mask, but there was a lovely pumped in scent to the whole auditorium.
This exhibtion is a joyous interactive experience. We stayed for two showings of the light display, moving from our oriinal position. I sat on the floor in front of a large wall to take it in the second time around. It didn't get old. In between viewings, some smaller clips, one of an indiginous dancer and a story, as well as some other digital art displayed - also breathtaking.
The only thing I'd change is the booking system - it uses Ticketmaster, and the experience we had booking wasn't great - so you've been warned. There is a phone line you can call. But the earlier you get in and book your time, the cheaper it is.
My only question is why so many people brought very young children to the exhibition - other than they were a distraction, and loud, I'm not sure what kids under four would get out of this. We were also there around the "Witching Hour" and kids might have been a bit more fractious than usual.
Another good thing, marshalls were enforcing mask wearing in the auditorium. Most people were compliance, but leave it off too long and you were asked to put it back on.
But for me, I want to go again. Maybe get a coffee in the exhibition cafe, or just lie on the floor and take it all in.
And as it uses the senses of sight, touch and taste, it would be lovely to have somebody to go with and hold their hand, or sit on the ground and snuggle up, just to bring touch into the experience.
Lume is exhibiting in Melbourne until the end of June 2022, most days from 10 am until around 9 pm. Tickets sit around the $40 mark depending on availability. It's worth every cent to have your senses delighted in such a awe-inspiring way.
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