David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at Aviva Studios
Carmel Smickersgill, Tours & Activities Editor
David Hockney has been known to have a fascinating life as well as a prolific career in visual art. And, for the first time this winter, Manchester will welcome Bigger and Closer, an immersive experience of Hockney’s work to Aviva Studios. You’re probably familiar with the previous immersive Van Gogh, Monet and Kahlo experiences that have visited Manchester. However, this is the first time an immersive art experience has been created with a living artist, meaning you can hear directly from the artist about each piece of work highlighted in the projections.
The experience follows Hockney’s life through LA and Yorkshire, and into Normandy. Handpicking pertinent pieces from times in the artist’s life that have led to the creation of seminal works. Hockney is known for his sweeping landscapes, intimate studies of people and beautifully colourful and wonky domestic scenes. It’s an aesthetic that’s gone on to inspire many great 20th and 21st-century painters, in addition to feeling distinctly linked to particular places and times.
The rising popularity of immersive visual experiences means that iconic works of art and rarely-seen pieces become more accessible to a wider audience – and in Bigger & Closer – Hockney delivers just that. Ambitious and immersive, Hockney’s work becomes a multisensory experience that everyone can become part of. Perhaps, though, what really sets this experience apart, is that you get to hear from the artist himself – the way he experiments with perspective and uses photography as a way of “drawing with a camera”.
Hockney’s work is as bold as it is colourful. Containing as much sunlit melancholy as it does bountiful joy, you can be sure that the time you spend in Bigger and Closer will be visually stunning and a definite conversation starter. Your experience will be guided by a specially composed soundtrack by Nico Muhly, an American composer whose deft minimalism should pair perfectly with Hockney’s work. Encounter the beauty and wonder of the world through Hockney’s eyes.
