In England, the sky above Saltaire, a 2001 UNESCO World Heritage-listed Victorian village on the outskirts of Bradford, was transformed on Nov. 13 into a luminous stage, where some of David Hockney ’s best-known works came to life thanks to a massive deployment of more than six hundred drones. The event, titled Painting the Sky, was conceived as a celebration dedicated to the Bradford-born artist and created for Bradford British Capital of Culture 2025. The decision to take Hockney’s art out of the museum halls and place it directly above Salts Mill and Roberts Park gave the show an unprecedented character, offering the public a completely new way to view and interpret his works. The initiative attracted thousands of people from the city and the entire region, confirming the cultural project’s ability to engage a wide and cross-sectional audience.
Produced by SKYMAGIC, a Leeds-based company that in recent years has established itself as one of the most innovative companies in the field of drone shows, Painting the Sky used technology to transform the sky into a large three-dimensional screen. SKYMAGIC is no stranger to major international events: its drones lit up the night during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, during the King’s Coronation Concert in 2023, and at California’s Coachella festival, as well as at the foot of Mount Fuji. The experience gained in these contexts enabled the company to devise a complex choreography capable of restoring the stylistic variety and iconic power of Hockney’s works in flight.
The event offered a visual journey through different periods of the artist’s career. As soon as darkness descended on Bradford, the audience gathered in Roberts Park witnessed the luminous reconstruction of some of the works that marked his output between the 1960s and more recent years. Drones reshaped in the sky the lines and color fields of 1967’s A Bigger Splash , one of the most recognizable paintings of Hockney’s California era, with its essential composition and explosion of water that characterizes the scene, and of other works by the painter, concluding with Yorkshire landscapes made on iPads.
Painting the sky had special significance not only because of the artist’s connection to his hometown, but also because it represented the first time drone technology was employed in the UK to create large-scale “light painting.” The opportunity to see well-known works of art reinterpreted through innovative technology highlighted how Hockney’s visual legacy can be reinterpreted in different ways, capable of engaging a diverse audience, from art enthusiasts to those who attended the show attracted by its spectacular component. The event was produced by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and SKYMAGIC, with support from Allwyn UK. The initiative is part of a larger program of events planned for Bradford 2025, which aims to enhance contemporary creativity and local cultural production.
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| England, drones in Bradford paint David Hockney's works in the sky |
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