JOIN JANE CONTINUING TO MAKE SENSE OF ART
And this month Jane is exploring the world of David Hockney.
There are many immersive art experiences – most large cities in this country and abroad seem to have at least one at the moment – and they are a great introduction to an artist’s body of work. But there is one that you really should see. David Hockney – Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) is now on until June at The Lightroom, not far from St Pancras in London. The difference between this and the others is that David Hockney is still alive, still working and was involved with every creative aspect of this production. This is him leading us through his personal journey of 60 years of art.
The creative team have used the latest digital projection and audio technology in a brand new space, allowing wall to wall and floor to ceiling projections. It took 3 years to make, and uses 1408 loudspeakers and 28 projectors!
Hockney , who is now 85, says “I’ve always been interested in technology and pictures.” This is the ultimate combination of the two.
Hockney narrates the journey through his lifetime in art – his familiar broad Yorkshire accent booming from above – a God like figure of 20th/21st century art – but it does also feel that he is talking just to you. I felt that he really wanted me to see and understand his unique way of seeing the world.
He starts with the history of perspective and we see how he has explored this through painting and also photography. His experimentation with photography is fascinating. His gripe with photography is that a photograph is a single view in a moment of time and he has worked to create an alternative, by combining photos of objects from different angles and different times, but saying that with paint it is easy to blend the rules of optics and open up the sensation of time in a way photography cannot.
There is a long section about his theatre work. I hadn’t realised how many set designs he had done – particularly for the world of opera. The sound track for this section was fantastic – the combination of sound and the bright colours surrounding us was rather overwhelming at times – but magical.
More recently David Hockney has been exploring digital art. He uses up to 10 ipads to produce his big digital paintings. He says;
“You can watch the whole drawing being made. It plays back every mark you did. It’s like looking over someone’s shoulder to see them draw, and people always love doing that with an artist, don’t they?”
And it was incredible to watch that speeded up process – as he says, mark by mark. I particularly enjoyed watched the one below emerging. We became emersed in the woodland and all its vibrant colours.
There was of course a section on his iconic swimming pool pictures. This bit was very slightly disappointing for me. Having seen the amazing water effects at other immersive experiences I thought they could have done a bit more with this bit – but, it was lovely to see all of them – and one does have to remember, they were created as static pieces!
I found this whole experience exciting and overwhelming. My senses of sight and sound were attacked from all angles giving a feeling of huge exhilaration and exhaustion. I came away feeling I knew so much more about David Hockney – such an important artist of our time, and had had a glimpse in to his mind – how he thinks and how he works.