Press Release: CIRCA Presents David Hockney
CIRCA COMMISSIONS GLOBAL DIGITAL ARTWORK BY DAVID HOCKNEY, ON VIEW IN LONDON, NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SEOUL AND TOKYO
(London, Piccadilly Circus) 1 May 2021 ➳ This May, Outdoor Screens Around The World Unite to Present Hockney’s Animated Sunrise on London’s Iconic Piccadilly Lights and Broadcast Over 70 Billboards in New York’s Times Square, at Pendry West Hollywood, the largest digital media display on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, The Largest LED Screen in Seoul and The Largest 3-Paneled LED Display in Japan.
A new video work by David Hockney, one of the world’s most celebrated living artists, will be unveiled across a network of the world’s most iconic outdoor video screens this May. The global collaboration, curated by Josef O’Connor, Founder and Artistic Director of CIRCA, an innovative new platform showcasing digital art in the public space, is in partnership with Piccadilly Lights, Europe’s largest screen. In a global display of unity, Hockney’s digital artwork will be broadcast around the world in collaboration with Times Square Arts’ Midnight Moment program in New York, synchronized over 70 electronic billboards, the digital media display at Pendry West Hollywood, Los Angeles’ newest screen, COEX K-POP Square, the largest LED screen in Korea, and Yunika Vision in Japan.
David Hockney, said: “What does the world look like? We have to take time to see its beauty. That’s what I hope my work will encourage people to do when they see it on the large screens.”
In this worldwide display of unity, Hockney’s animated sunrise offers a powerful symbol of hope and collaboration as many parts of the world awaken from lockdown. In place of advertisements, members of the public living across these five cities are given the opportunity for a spontaneous encounter with Hockney’s meditation on the arrival of spring. Created on the artist’s iPad in Normandy, France, this global happening coincides with the release of Hockney’s new book Spring Cannot Be Cancelled and his Royal Academy exhibition The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 opening 23rd May to 26th September 2021.
Norman Rosenthal, Chairman of The CIRCA Council, says “I love the idea of sunrise at sunset. It’s a profound idea.”
Josef O’Connor, Artistic Director, CIRCA, says: “There has never been a better time for this shining image of hope, which links people across borders and continents to celebrate the arrival of spring. We are especially grateful to David Hockney, a master in exploring the boundaries of new media, for allowing CIRCA to present his work in such a bold and democratic way, connecting Piccadilly Lights with screens all around the world.”
Derek Manns, Commercial Media Director for Landsec says: “Piccadilly Lights is the beating heart of the UK, and has been the voice of the nation for the past twelve months whilst the global pandemic has prevented so many of us from connecting, sharing and being with the people around us. This is a campaign filled with hope and beauty just as we start to emerge from lockdown. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the reopening of London and other cultural destinations around the world.”
Jean Cooney, Director, Times Square Arts says: “We’re proud to be a part of this international collaboration featuring one of the world’s most renowned living artists advocating for hope and new horizons amidst the incredible uncertainty we face as a global society. This partnership across four countries marks the most expansive collaboration to date in Times Square’s Midnight Moment program’s nine-year history.”
PUBLISHED BY CIRCA
This May, David Hockney has created the following time-limited poster available until midnight 31 May 2021:
Published by CIRCA on the occasion of Remember That You Cannot Look At The Sun Or Death For Very Long (2021), this time-limited poster by David Hockney celebrates one of the artist’s most ambitious public art projects. Combining video stills from his animated sunrise with a custom drawing created on his iPad, the work reflects Hockney’s enduring fascination with light, time, perception and the changing rhythms of the natural world.
Created in Normandy during the COVID-19 pandemic, the original artwork emerged from Hockney’s daily observations of spring unfolding outside his window. Animated from a sequence of iPad drawings, the film captures the gradual arrival of dawn, transforming an everyday experience into a meditation on beauty, attention and renewal. Characteristically optimistic, the work invites viewers to pause and look more carefully at the world around them.
Released alongside a landmark global broadcast, the project united public screens across London, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul and Tokyo in a shared moment of reflection. In place of commercial advertising, Hockney’s sunrise appeared across some of the world’s most iconic digital displays, offering a symbol of hope as communities emerged from lockdown and reconnected with public life. Enhanced with a yellow silkscreen overlay, this special poster edition extends the spirit of the commission into a collectible work designed to reach as wide an audience as possible.
NOTES TO EDITORS
SCREENING GLOBALLY
Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long by David Hockney can be viewed 1 – 31 May 2021 at the following times and locations worldwide:
- 20:21 GMT – London, Piccadilly Lights
- 20:21 PST – Los Angeles: Pendry West Hollywood
- 23:57 EST – New York: Times Square
- 20:21 KST – Seoul, COEX K-Pop Square
- 09:00 JST – Tokyo, Yunika Vision, Shinjuku
ABOUT DAVID HOCKNEY
David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the world’s most influential and celebrated living artists. From the 1960’s, when he first burst onto the art scene in London, he has remained a significant force in the art world, not only for his paintings, drawings and printmaking, but also for his interrogation of photography and new media in addition to stage design. Long associated with recording life in Los Angeles, the past two decades have seen a re-engagement with the European landscape and the natural world.
In 2009, David Hockney began expanding his practice from a decades-long reliance on analog mediums to that of iPad drawings. What began as drawing with his thumb on an iPhone quickly shifted to drawing with a stylus pen on the newly released iPad: “There was great advantage in this medium because it’s backlit and I could draw in the dark. I didn’t ever have to get out of bed,”
ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world’s most iconic urban places. Through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance’s own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity.Times Square Arts’s Midnight Moment program is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million.
ABOUT LANDSEC
The Piccadilly Lights advertisement screen has been one of London’s icons for over a century and is unmissable for the 100 million people who pass through Piccadilly Circus every year. A cultural landmark in the Landsec property portfolio, at a time when culture and the arts have been heavily impacted, Landsec have donated time to CIRCA, an independently curated digital art platform, to create an institutional collaboration as a celebration of the arts in the public space, and to support the cultural community of London’s West End.
ABOUT YUNIKA VISION
The Largest 3-Paneled LED Screen in Japan, Yunika Vision is the outdoor digital signage complex which combines 3 large-scale 100m2 LED vision screens with a 52m vision screen for text broadcasting. As a landmark befitting the international Shinjuku district, they provide worldwide news and information daily. Not only utilizing the 3 massive screens for a powerful visual impact, they also deliver various information and services. These include interlinked broadcasts with SNS and smartphones, event-linked broadcasts held at the PePe plaza in front of the Seibu-Shinjuku Station , and real-time information services also incorporating webcasts. Readying for the IoT age, they aim to expand the infinite possibilities of outdoor media by producing synergistic effects through these endeavors.
ABOUT COEX K-POP SQUARE
Korea’s biggest digital billboard “COEX K-pop Square”, which is built & operated by CJ Powercast, has become the talk of the town, obtaining local as well as international attention. Measuring 81 meters in width and 21 meters in height Total measurement of 1700 square meters, (,Coex K-POP Square takes the two-dimensional display to another level, providing a three-dimensional sense of space and a whole new visual experience to the audience.
Samseong-dong in Seoul, where the media is located, was designated as Korea’s first free outdoor advertising zone in 2018 for establishing a platform that creates the culture of the city beyond a simple advertising zone within less restriction to the size or type of billboards. This has allowed the Coex K-POP Square to be an immersive and competitive content platform and cultural space.
CJ Powercast INC., who is the leading Digital Out-Of-Home media company in Korea, has participated in the establishment, design & installation of COEX K-pop Square since 2017 when this location was designated from the authority, and are introducing the various types of immersive content for the public purpose & amusement, to the present. This project was given to CJ Powercast with full engagement, for the sake of worldwide public art collaboration in nowadays lockdown period.
ABOUT PENDRY WEST HOLLYWOOD
Pendry West Hollywood features 5,300+ square feet of interwoven digital signage on three facades facing Sunset Blvd on the storied Sunset Strip.. The digital signage aims to become an imaginative canvas for digital art in addition to showcasing hand-selected brand partners. West Hollywood is an art- and entertainment-focused community and the digital signage campaign at Pendry West Hollywood pays homage to the neighborhood’s rich history while also providing an unique platform for digital art and commerce.
ABOUT CIRCA
Created by artist Josef O’Connor, CIRCA commissions a different artist each month to present new ideas that consider our world circa 2021. Each artist is invited to create a new work for Europe’s largest screen that offers an innovative and exciting way for people to engage with art, both outside and online, in a safe and socially distanced way. Hockney’s work will pause the adverts on London’s Piccadilly Light’s screen at 20:21BST, a new time for 2021.
Visitors to Piccadilly Circus can connect their headphones to the CIRCSA website and receive a fully immersive audio-visual experience. The website also streams the artwork every evening at 20:21BST and hosts supporting content alongside past archives of CIRCA commissioned work from artists including Patti Smith, Tony Cokes and Ai Weiwei.
Starting from just £100, supporters are invited to become a CIRCA patron as part of their innovative new fundraising campaign ‘c. YOUR NAME IN LIGHTS’ which offers 1,000 people the unique opportunity to support free public art and see their name appear on the Piccadilly Lights screen every evening until the end of 2021. To find out more, please visit: circa.art
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PRESS OFFICE
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