Battersea Power Station, home of London’s latest Apple retail store, is decorated for Christmas with an enormous moving art display projected on the front. Reasonably named “Bigger Christmas Trees,” it was created by artist David Hockney on an iPad.
The art installation will continue each evening until December 25.
‘Bigger Christmas Trees’ can surely be seen for miles
Battersea Power Station is huge and sits right on the bank of the Thames River in London. Despite the name, it’s now an upscale mall and mixed-used community. The colossal building is a prominent location for the animated Christmas display.
As Battersea said on its website:
“World-renowned artist David Hockney has sprinkled some Christmas magic over Battersea Power Station with a bespoke new piece of art! Drawn on iPad, Hockney’s 10-minute animation, ‘Bigger Christmas Trees’ will be here until the 25th December, transforming our iconic façade into two magical Christmas trees overlooking the River Thames.”
It’s a big enough deal that Apple CEO Tim Cook called attention to it on Monday. He posted via X (formerly Twitter).
“A huge thank you to the incomparable David Hockney for helping us get into the spirit of the season!” Cook wrote. “Your new artwork, Bigger Christmas Trees, created on iPad looks incredible on London’s Battersea Power Station. Happy holidays everyone!”
Hockney is “an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s … considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century,” according to Wikipedia. Hockney also quickly adopted the iPad as a medium for producing his artwork.
A huge thank you to the incomparable David Hockney for helping us get into the spirit of the season! Your new artwork, Bigger Christmas Trees, created on iPad looks incredible on London’s Battersea Power Station. Happy holidays everyone! pic.twitter.com/6EwFgP9Lik
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 4, 2023
Battersea Power Station is iconic
Given the name, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Battersea Power Station burned coal to provide electricity to London during half of the 20th century. And it wasn’t subtle about it — it’s the largest brick structure in Europe and right on the Thames. But the plant was shut down in 1983, and these days houses upscale retail as well as restaurants, bars, offices (including some filled with Apple employees) and apartments.
The Apple Battersea retail store opened in June 2023 to cheering crowds.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
