Just before Christmas I decided to take the kids to Aviva Studios in Manchester. I’d seen adverts for a huge interactive exhibition of David Hockney and thought we might fill some Christmas holidays time with it. Two things though:
a) I actually knew much, much less about Hockney than I would’ve cared to admit previously.
b) the exhibition wasn’t quite what I expected – it was much better!
On paper: it was a one-room setup, fortunately in a giant room. Hockney’s work would be projected on the walls, while a voiceover of the artist played.
In reality, it was so much more than that. The works projected on the walls were different across the huge space – one wall would be different to the next, for example. This meant that the audience had to look around, and someone sat in Point A would have a different perspective to someone in Point B.
This tied in with the narrative provided by the voiceover, of looking at things from different perspectives and how Hockney has done that throughout his career.
It also meant that the kids were free to wander around the room, touching the walls, engaging with the art in a different way to the mostly-static parents. The floor was carpeted and guests were encouraged to relax, lie back and take it all in. Which we did!
The work covered Hockney’s career in six loose chapters, from Yorkshire to LA to Normandy and the bits inbetween.
The genius of the exhibition, in my opinion, was Hockney’s latter-day work created using iPads. This meant that we were able to see every brush stroke he made to create a picture, and see the creative process from start to finish. A brilliant use of technology and art together.
Two major highlights for me: one was seeing Hockney’s photography work, mainly from his LA period. The use of different perspectives and putting multiple photos together to create something new – genius.
The second highlight was seeing my kids engage with the exhibition and be granted the freedom and space to engage with it in their own way!
The exhibition closed at the end of January – but if it comes back to Manchester, I’ll be heading back there myself.
