London Theatre Company and 59 Productions announce new creative venture in the heart of King's Cross
Photo credit: David Hockney
London Theatre Company and 59 Productions have announced a new creative venture in the heart of King's Cross, Lightroom, along with its opening show, David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away).
One of the world's most acclaimed and popular living artists is to create the launch show for Lightroom - an extraordinary four-storey-high space in Kings Cross equipped with the latest digital projection and audio technology. Opening on 25 January 2023, Lightroom will be London's new home for spectacular artist-led shows.
Hockney will use the innovative venue to take the audience on a personal journey through his art, featuring iconic paintings alongside some rarely seen pieces and some newly created work. His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites visitors to see the world through his eyes.
Tickets are on sale from today for the initial booking period from 25 January until 23 April 2023.
In a cycle of six themed chapters, with a specially composed score by Nico Muhly and a commentary by the artist himself, Hockney reveals his process to us. His voice is in our ears as we watch him experimenting with perspective, using photography as a way of 'drawing with a camera', capturing the passing of time in his polaroid collages and the joy of spring on his iPad, and showing us why only paint can properly convey the hugeness of the Grand Canyon. We join him on his audio-visual Wagner Drive, roaring up into the San Gabriel Mountains, and into the opera house by means of animated re-creations of his stage designs.
From LA to Yorkshire, and up to the present day in Normandy, the show is an unprecedented opportunity to spend time in the presence of one of the great popular geniuses of the art world still innovating, still creating beauty and awe.
"The world is very very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don't look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, they don't really look at things incredibly well, with an intensity. I do." David Hockney, from the soundtrack of 'Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)'
The show is the result of three years' close collaboration between David Hockney and the creators of Lightroom. It will be the first in a repertoire of original shows, made with leading artists and innovators, aspiring to be visually astonishing, alive with sound and rich in new perspectives.
The show's director, Mark Grimmer of 59 Productions, said: "We have worked with David to bring together large-scale projected images, animation, archival and bespoke interviews and a commissioned score to create a new kind of show which owes as much to Hockney's theatrical design as to his painting, drawing and photography. It's been thrilling to work with David over the last three years and we hope the show will introduce a whole new audience to his art."
Executive producer Nicholas Hytner said: "What's so exciting about this show is how authentically Hockney it is. Listening to his voice in this astonishing new space while seeing his artworks unfurl around the four walls is going to be both an experience and an education. It suggests how potent this medium will be for the other creators and artists with whom we will make new and original Lightroom shows in the years to come."
Lightroom is located in King’s Cross on Lewis Cubitt Square, adjacent to Coal Drops Yard and Central St Martin’s. It was designed by Haworth Tompkins as a sister space to the award-winning Bridge Theatre in SE1. The generous foyer will contain a café/bar run in collaboration with St John, a gift shop and seating in the foyer and outside on the square. The venue will be open seven days a week throughout the day and on most evenings.
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