Apple Watch Art Installation at Selfridges - London

Addicted To Retail (ATR) presents: Apple's kaleidoscope of butterflies for Apple Watch in the Wonder Room at Selfridges.

Apple has taken over the Oxford Street corner and side windows of the Wonder Room at Selfridges and filled them with butterflies to promote the Apple Watch. An extremely complex lighting sequence, installed above the grid on the ceiling and set in to the platform floor below, lights the butterflies in a sequence of colours, creating the compelling illusion that they are fluttering as a cloud.

The four adjacent side windows each house a kaleidoscope of butterflies. One of several collective nouns for butterflies, this is completely accurate in describing the lovely impression created. The mechanics of the illusion are more clearly seen when studying the platform below the butterflies. Here, cool blue light replaces a warmer yellow, which has replaced the pink light now disappearing to the right.

Each butterfly is individually suspended on its own fishing line. With a chrome upper surface to reflect the light and a white underside, which gives a gentler colour, the butterflies are both stylized and realistic. Like British artist Cornelia Parker's 'Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View', now in the Tate Modern, the compelling nature of the installation lies in the care and precision with which the butterflies have been placed, fluttering in slightly different directions and at slightly different angles.

This fascinating window almost breaks the primary rule of VM: to showcase merchandise. But look carefully and the installations of three Apple Watches in each window are visible near the glass. Each is mounted on a watch-mount set on a slender pole, their faces repeating a series of images, including a butterfly.

Tags: Apple, Apple Watch, Selfridges, windows, London