With Sunflowers for Vincent van Gogh, Hugo Vrijdag has transformed the painter’s famous sunflowers into a monumental illuminated landscape. Van Gogh apparently considered his sunflowers to be like lanterns and this installation transports the visitor to a meadow of brightly-lit flowers reminiscent of the French countryside where he painted most of his works.
69 sunflowers of varying sizes are laid out in such a way as to create a trompe-l’œil effect. The shortest are placed in the front and the tallest behind but, depending on your perspective, they all look the same size. When photographed from a distance, the 3D installation almost resembles a two-dimensional painting.
The flowers were crafted using an ancient Chinese lantern-making technique with the help of artisans in China who built a metal frame covered in yellow, green and brown-hued silk. This visual experience is accompanied by the chirping of crickets and the calling of swallows. Swallow song is a leitmotiv in Hugo Vrijdag’s work and it gives this insight into Van Gogh’s world an intimate and poetic feel.