TIMES SQUARE — An artist who worked as the video designer for David Bowie’s musical “Lazarus” has created a “visual lullaby for the city.”
Brooklyn-based Tal Yarden’s “Counting Sheep” will air on Times Square’s billboards between 11:57 p.m. and midnight each night in December as part of Times Square Arts and the Times Square Advertising Coalition’s “Midnight Moment” series.
The video centers on octogenarian brothers who work as sheep ranchers in Wyoming, whom Yarden started filming when he was commissioned to create a backdrop for an operatic version of Brokeback Mountain.
“... ‘Counting Sheep’ shepherds us into a soothing American pastiche of expansive Wyoming landscapes,” Times Square Arts said in a release. “And in the city that never sleeps… Yarden plays on the classic idea of counting sheep to help us pass into a night’s slumber or peacefully lead us into the new year.”
The artist himself will attend the Dec. 7 viewing of the piece, the release added.
“Drawing on ancient pastoral traditions, I want to reconnect with a life guided by the seasons,” he said in a statement. “As we count down to midnight, I want to remind us of a world beyond the urban canyon where losing count is a path to peace.”
