A blockbuster immersive show of works from the late, acclaimed British artist David Hockney makes its Australian debut at Carriageworks this week. David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) was created in collaboration between production house Lightroom London and the artist himself before his death aged 88 in June this year.
It first opened in 2023 in London and has since been seen by more than 650,000 attendees globally with stints in South Korea, China and Singapore.
Lightroom London chief executive Richard Slaney said the idea was sparked by other immersive exhibitions showcasing the works of artists such as Van Gogh and Monet.
“They were great, but in watching them I thought wouldn’t it be interesting if you did that with a living artist?” Slaney said. Hockney was the clear choice as a multimedia artist who had worked across painting, photography, stage design and digital media, with a practice that embraced new technology.
“We spent three years working on it with him, so he chose all the work that’s in it, he designed the show with us.”
Slaney remembers Hockney being with the team every day for three-and-a-half months for the creation of the Lightroom venue in London, sitting in a hard hat, chain-smoking on the building site.
“It was freezing cold. It was awful in many ways, but [Hockney] didn’t care because all he cared about was making the work. We all learnt so much from him.”
At a media preview on Tuesday morning ahead of the show’s opening on Thursday, Carriageworks chief executive Fergus Linehan welcomed attendees beneath a banner emblazoned with a quote from Hockney, “If you’re not playful, you’re not alive”. Describing him as “one of the most beloved artists of our time”, Linehan said the show was for Hockney an opportunity to “put the viewer right in the centre of his work in a way that hadn’t been possible before”.
Walking into the show, one enters through a dim passageway before coming to a room with soaring illuminated walls reaching almost to the ceiling where a continual 50-minute loop plays pieces from throughout Hockney’s 60 years of artistic practice. In the narration Hockney shares his thoughts on perspective, scale and colour, with viewers looking at his famous pool paintings, his sprawling photographic collages, his later period iPad paintings, and, in one of the most exciting sections, an examination of his perhaps lesser-known work as a designer for opera, which is brought to life with vivid animation.
The images are projected 360 degrees around the space, at times creeping onto the floor, and viewers can either walk up to a higher platform for a bird’s-eye view or sit on benches in the middle for an almost overwhelming flood of light and colour.
The works are also paired with an excellent soundtrack especially created by American composer Nico Muhly for Bigger & Closer, while the narration from Hockney draws on both archival interviews and new recordings for the show. Listeners can enjoy him dropping truth bombs like “the world is very beautiful if you look at it – but most people don’t look”.
“You’re put inside David Hockney’s artworks, but also a little bit inside his mind,” Slaney said of the immersive experience. “He’s guiding you through whatever you’re looking at, so you get this insight into different elements of his process, how he thinks about the world. We talk about it having the intimacy of a podcast, but the scale of an IMAX – it’s huge and intimate at the same time.”
The show debuting in Sydney is almost the same as the one that toured the world, but following Hockney’s death, one small but touching change has been made.
“We put a portrait of him at the end according to the wishes of his family,” Slaney said. “A photograph we took of him in Lightroom in London added at the end with his dates. I think it was important for us to show to the audience that he was there. That’s the only change.”
For Linehan Bigger & Closer is a fittingly mammoth celebration of Hockney’s outsized legacy and one that welcomes both avid fans of his work and those seeing it for the first time.
“It’s a beautiful, summery, joyous experience which, even though we didn’t intend it to be, is this glorious final coda to the life of this brilliant artist,” Linehan said. “It’s done with such precision and intentionality and love that I think people who are serious art lovers will find a lot in it and if you don’t know anything about David Hockney you’ll still have a lovely time.”
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) is at Carriageworks from October 22 to January 24.
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