Growing up, I explored museums mindlessly, never stopping long enough at any particular piece of artwork to consider its creator. But the Van Gogh Immersive Experience currently on exhibit in Winston-Salem interrupts those habits. It threw me into each painting, seating me next to Van Gogh at his asylum window and wondering if he was perhaps more sane than us all.

The exhibit is located in a converted warehouse off Stratford Road. Interactive activities aimed at children and 3D reconstructions of his greatest works present Van Gogh’s life and art in ways that are accessible to all. The main attraction, however, is in the final room, where his masterpieces are projected onto all four walls. Chairs and hassocks allow visitors to linger and even lie down, enveloped by the colorful images. It is, as advertised, an immersive experience. 

Van Gogh is famous for taking his own ear, and later his own life. During stints in asylums, the limited view from his small window barely hindered his creativity. He memorized the image of the “Starry Night” long before translating it to canvas and later gifting it to society. 

“Starry Night” was the work of a man in the thralls of mania. It was rash, dark and divine, and it serves as a reminder that many prisoners of their own minds.

Van Gogh’s work transcends space and time to grip viewers again and again across the globe, from his home in the Netherlands to the Piedmont Triad. At the Immersive Experience, each stroke is magnified with intention as it moves across the wall. We watch as the “Starry Night” is painted with the knowledge that the painting has outlived its painter.

Another night scene takes its place. This one is titled “Starry Night Over the Rhône.” The stars shine rather than glow. One of them extracts itself from the still image and shoots across the wall. The waves ebb and flow and lights from across the river dance on the surface of the water. 

The phrase “I think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day” hangs on the wall, like a fixture of the painting itself. Was Van Gogh blessed with clarity while gripped by the hand of death? The sky merges with the water, and a large wave washes it off the wall.  

The walls darken momentarily, and we are in a field, garden or pasture, bearing witness to the dance of hundreds of sunflowers. Van Gogh painted eleven sunflower canvases and many are among his most famous works. In this room, they are all one. An invisible wind blows the interconnected substance across the four walls and they are gone again.  

I encourage you to spend an hour in the mind of this great painter. The Van Gogh Immersive Experience will remain in Winston-Salem until the end of the year while it waits for a renewal from its parent company, Fervor.