David Hockney: Global Sunrise

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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.”

The new video, titled Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long, will be shown every evening throughout the month of May at the following times and locations:

• London: Piccadilly Lights, at 20:21BST 

• New York: Times Square, at 23:57EST

• Los Angeles: Pendry West Hollywood, at 20:21PST

• Seoul: Coex K-POP Square, at 20:21KST

• Tokyo: Yunika Vision, Shinjuku, at 09:00JST

• Online via the CIRCA.ART website every evening, at 20:21BST

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. 

A Time-Limited Poster by David Hockney is available to buy for £100 (exc. VAT for U.K. customers) on the CIRCA website until 31 May 2021. Created especially in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY, which arises in response to our post-Covid world. For more info, click here.