Douglas Coupland is searching the globe for a Vincent van Gogh look-alike – so that he can immortalize them in bronze.
The acclaimed Canadian artist, novelist and actor, who is perhaps best known for his 1991 novel Generation X, has asked that people from around the world who believe they look like van Gogh upload a photo to iamvincent.com. After the deadline of Aug. 20 has passed, a shortlist of 50 will be selected and Coupland will choose the winner himself.
The van Gogh look-alike will be awarded €5,000 (about $7,200), and flown to Vancouver along with one guest. Once there, their head will be 3-D-scanned to form the mould Coupland will use for the final two-by-three-metre bronze statue. Already, the initiative has received almost 500 submissions, according to Coupland, and he believes the number will reach about 3,000 in the end.
“I was nervous that we would have only a few entries and now it’s just this major sigh of relief,” Coupland said in an interview with The Globe. “The contest could end today and I’d be thrilled. It’s kind of amazing how many Vincent look-alikes there are out there.”
Coupland believes there’s been such an overwhelming response because many people identify with van Gogh and the struggles he went through in his life.
“People really respond to Vincent because everyone’s like, ‘I think I’ve got something special, there’s something I want to show the world and if only I could get it out there.’ Here’s the guy that did it but he was rejected and it wasn’t until after he was dead that his genius was discovered. I think everyone relates to that,” Coupland said. “All people look at that and go ‘Oh, if he did it, I could do it.’ He’s really universal.”
The van Gogh sculpture will be part of a bigger collection titled Redheads, which will depict famous redheads from throughout history. On the project’s website, Coupland wrote that redheadedness was “the most recent successful human mutation,” with redheads making up 1 to 2 per cent of the world’s population and 6 per cent of the population in North European and Western countries.
“This is a complex way of saying that there is no way of telling when a gene is going to change, and what sort of characteristic it will bring about,” he wrote. “This genetic magic is a microcosm of the way in which all life on Earth changes with time.”
Coupland added that he would like the piece to “trigger discussion about new relationships between science, art and globalization.”
His list of potential candidates for future pieces in the installation is diverse, as it includes George Washington, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Prince Harry, David Bowie, Ann-Margret and even Wilma Flintstone.
“I think every year it’s going to be a different material,” Coupland said. “Next year I’d really like to work with cast aluminum and then if it’s in a covered environment I’d just work with wood, which if you keep it properly is just gorgeous forever.”
Coupland has also asked Canadian illustrator Graham Roumieu to join the project. Roumieu will post a sketch to Coupland’s blog each week depicting a fictional road trip with van Gogh and artist Paul Gauguin.
Roumieu believes Coupland was “looking to add, as he often does, an extra layer to what he was trying to do.” The illustrator said the project has even started having an impact on his day-to-day life.
“I keep seeing van Gogh around town,” Roumieu said. “It’s both fun and irritating now because I’m constantly swivelling my head and seeing them: on the street car, shopping for groceries. There’s just van Goghs all over the place.”