David Hockney Digital Show Premieres Midnight in Times Square

A new digital artwork 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, uniting Times Square, London, Tokyo, and Seoul this May.

Hockney’s Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long brings a digital sunrise to these worldwide locations, offering a powerful symbol of hope and collaboration. As it reaches the screens of Times Square at three minutes to midnight, it transforms: the sun slowly crests a dark horizon, bringing color to the sky and landscape even as it sends shadows across the ground, and then turning brighter and brighter as the sun’s rays spread dramatically across the screen. Created during quarantine on the artist’s iPad in Normandy, France, Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long offers the opportunity for a spontaneous encounter with Hockney’s meditation on the arrival of spring.

“What does the world look like? We have to take time to see its beauty,” said the artist. “That’s what I hope my work will encourage people to do when they see it on the large screens.”

Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long will be shown for three minutes every evening throughout the month of May at the following times and locations:

• New York: Times Square across 70+ electronic billboards, at 11:57pm EST
• London: Piccadilly Lights, Europe’s largest screen at 8:21pm (20:21) BST
• Seoul: Coex K-POP Square LED screen at 8:21pm (20:21) KST
• Japan: Yunika Vision, Shinjuku at 09:00am JST
• Online via the CIRCA.ART website every evening at 8:21pm (20:21) BST

The global collaboration was commissioned and curated by the London-based CIRCA, an innovative new platform showcasing digital art in the public space, and 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 May 23, 2021.

In conjunction with this exhibition, a time-limited poster by David Hockney is available for purchase on the CIRCA website until May 31, 2021. Created especially in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY, which arises in response to our post-COVID world, 70% of the profits will be used to commission new culture and help support the creative community with the distribution of cash grants to artists and institutions.