Accessible Information Pack The experience has been created by Grande Exhibitions WHAT IS SENSORY4™? Developed by Grande Exhibitions, SENSORY4™ is a unique system that combines multichannel motion graphics, cinema quality surround sound and up to forty high-definition projectors to provide one of the most exciting multiscreen environments in the world. This Accessible Information Pack has been created by Birmingham Hippodrome, Deaf Explorer and Sightlines; to accompany visits to the UK premiere of Van Gogh Alive at Birmingham Hippodrome, which opened on 8 Oct 2020. Van Gogh Alive Van Gogh’s works have been home, in London and Paris, displayed and enjoyed around the planting the seed for an enduring world for over a century - but passion for painting. never like this. Forget traditions In his early 20s, Vincent of tiptoeing through silent unsuccessfully studied theology galleries and viewing paintings then briefly served as a from afar - Van Gogh Alive will missionary. In 1880, at the age of have you interacting with art in 27, Vincent finally turned to art: ways you never imagined. inspired by Impressionism and From the moment you enter, a Post-Impressionism, and heavily powerful and vibrant symphony influenced by artists of the time of light, colour and sound such as Monet and Gauguin. compels you to leave the world He had found his calling. behind and immerse yourself in Completely self-taught, Van Gogh Van Gogh’s paintings. was one of the most prolific Vincent Willem van Gogh was artists of his time. In only ten born in 1853 in a small town in years, he produced more than the south of the Netherlands. 2,000 works of art, consisting of Vincent became aware from an around 930 paintings and 1,100 early age of the divide between drawings and sketches. his own middle-class upbringing Despite this great volume of and the poverty-stricken lives of work, The Red Vineyard is the only the local labourers. piece known to have sold during Leaving school at 16, Vincent his lifetime. began work at an art dealership Van Gogh was constantly inspired in which his uncle was a partner; by the changing landscapes and organising exhibitions, selling people that surrounded him original and reproduced artworks throughout his ten-year artistic - and seeing the prices they were journey. fetching. Vincent was exposed to a wide range of paintings at Distinct changes can be seen in productive: his optimism clearly his use of colour, light, style and evident through the Sunflower technique; reflecting underlying series and his love for Japanese changes in his state of mind. art. Van Gogh Alive explores these Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles marks changes in shifting ‘movements’, a turning point in his emotional or chapters. Each movement is instability, and downward spiral accompanied by a musical score into mental illness. that echoes the emotions and Over the last ten years of his life, experiences that underlie Van Van Gogh expressed himself in Gogh’s work through the many over 800 letters, providing an phases of his artistic life. amazing insight into his personal We begin in Vincent’s homeland, and artistic journey. the Netherlands, through his During Van Gogh’s voluntary stylistically dark ‘Dutch’ period of commitment to the asylum at subdued, earthy tones: distinctly Saint-Remy, he produced both different to the vibrant style that tortured and peaceful would emerge over the following landscapes, leaving us with a years, laying the foundations for glimmer of hope embodied by ‘modern’ art. the Starry Night. From the Netherlands, we move Vincent’s sense of emptiness is to France. Inspired by the energy almost palpable in his haunting of Paris and the Impressionist final works, featuring the wide- painters, Vincent began to open spaces of Auvers-sur-Oise; develop a brighter palette and concluding with his most transform into the celebrated evocative and elemental piece, style for which he is known. Wheat Field with Crows, offering We make our way to the south of a candid insight into the artist’s France from Paris to Arles. Van emotional turmoil in his final Gogh’s time in this region was days. perhaps the happiest of his life, and certainly the most Guide to The Netherlands the Music of Oliver Ledbury - Skye At Night Potato Eaters - Atmospheric, Van Gogh Alive bleak violin over continuous drone. Van Gogh Alive is set to a classical music score that reflects the emotional turbulence Paris of Van Gogh’s life. Ian Hughes - Fromage Français For Deaf and hard of hearing A typical, happy, traditional- audiences, we wanted to sounding French tune played on describe some of the musical the accordion. score that is played during the experience. J.S Bach - Cello Suite No. 1 for cello & strings The experience is divided into An uplifting expansive piece movements. We have described played on the cello. some highlights of the score for each movement. Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1 Satie was a French composer Self-Portraits and pianist. This piece is slow and melodic, almost melancholic. Antonio Vivaldi - Le quattro stagioni, Tormenta: From Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons,’ the word Japan tormenta means storm. Unknown - Sakura Sakura Matched with the self-portraits Sakura sakura means ‘cherry Van Gogh painted throughout his blossoms’ in Japanese. The music life, the music reflects his inner is a traditional Japanese folk turmoil. song, celebrating the beauty of cherry blossoms in full bloom. Arles Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was afraid that people would not J.S Bach / Charles Gounod - consider him a serious composer Prelude No. 1 in C Major if they heard The Carnival of the Animals. He stipulated in his will The music begins feeling light that it could not be published and romantic, however the music until after his death. then starts changing key which subtly alters the mood, giving In a small parallel to Van Gogh, darker undertones to the the only movement in Saint- romance, leaving the audience Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, unsettled. that was published during the Erik Satie - Gnossienne No.1 composer’s lifetime, was The Swan. He could have no idea how Played on the piano, the mood is famous his music would become, thoughtful and brooding. Feelings much like Van Gogh’s paintings. of timelessness and infinity come from the work’s cyclical nature - Auvers-sur-Oise you could leave the piece of music on repeat and never This movement includes a sound distinctly hear a beginning or an effect of a gunshot. A few days ending. after Van Gogh completed his painting of Wheatfield with Crows Saint-Rémy (July 1890) he walked into the same field and shot himself. Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre Eulogy Danse Macabre means the George Frederic Handel - Dance of Death. The theme of the Sarabande music is the universality of death: no matter who you are or where A sarabande is a dance that you are from, everyone eventually originated in Central America dies. The Danse Macabre unites back in the sixteenth century. all. Handel adopted the sarabande and his version is a stately and Camille Saint-Saëns - Carnival of mournful work. the Animals No.7, Aquarium Van Gogh Quotes Self-Portraits: With grey felt hat, with straw hat, with bandaged ear, Self-Portrait 1889 I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. I dream of painting and then I paint my dream. Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting. I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’. Irises If you truly love nature, you will feel beauty everywhere. What colour is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life. I work as diligently on my canvases as the labourers do in their fields. Cafe Terrace at Night Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul. Sunflowers Though I am still in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke. I wish they would only take me as I have tried to express the idea I am. that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. The way to know life is to love many things. Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all. Blossoming Almond Tree I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream. Starry Night You can’t be at the pole and equator at the same time. You I don’t know anything with must choose your own line, as I certainty, but seeing the stars hope to do, and it will probably makes me dream. be colour. The emotions are sometimes In either figure or landscape I so strong that I work without wish to express not sentimental knowing it. The strokes come like melancholy, but serious sorrow. speech. The more I become decomposed, Still Life with the more sick and fragmented I Quince Pears am, the more I become an artist. There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, Line sketches and if it became worse and and drawings harder even, the French air cleans up the brain and does Great things are done by a series good - a world of good. of small things brought together.