Cate Blanchett | 📷 Es Devlin | Harper's Bazaar UK, November 2022
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Landmark Compton buildings are "characters" on Es Devlin's Super Bowl stage
British designer Es Devlin paid tribute to the Californian city of Compton, often hailed as the birthplace of hip hop, through architectural iconography for the stage design of this year's Super Bowl show.
Devlin "cast buildings as characters" for the set of Super Bowl's halftime show, which took place at the HKS-designed SoFi Stadium on Sunday and featured high-profile artists led by Compton native Dr Dre, who worked with Devlin on the design.
Es Devlin designed the stage for the Super Bowl halftime show
"We cast each of the buildings as characters in the narrative," Devlin told Dezeen.
"The buildings are placed within the map along Rosecrans Avenue," she said. "The stadium floor cloth is printed from high-resolution aerial photographs of Compton, supplied by Google Earth, with more detailed photographs taken by a local helicopter pilot."
The stadium floor was covered in a Google Earth photo of Compton
The Compton Courthouse jail, the Martin Luther King Memorial and legendary nightclub Eve After Dark were among the significant landmarks referenced throughout the performance.
Barbershops, burger joints and residential houses also appeared on the stage, while lightweight cardboard box props referenced the cardboard often found on the streets of Compton.
Famous Compton landmarks appeared on the stage
Devlin worked closely with the halftime show's producer, Dr Dre, who wanted the stage to look like an art installation as well as an arena for the performance.
"Dr Dre was immediately interested in the idea of 'placeness' – he sensed that Compton would be a protagonist in the work and that we could etch a map of Compton on the global Super Bowl stage," said Devlin.
The stage was constructed in just eight minutes
The set is made up of white boxy trailers or 'buildings' upon which the performers sing and dance. The floor was formed of a fabric floor map that could be rolled out in an instant.
Lowrider cars – vehicles that are commonly seen cruising around downtown Compton – were driven onto the stage, transforming the arena from a pitch to a theatrical stage.
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The Super Bowl set is often limited by the fact that it has to be assmebled at the venue and easily broken apart in time for the second half of the football game. In total, Devlin's the set was constructed in just eight minutes.
"Bruce Rogers is the veteran Super Bowl production designer who masterminded the design to be able to appear within eight minutes and disappear within six minutes – an immense challenge requiring military precision and crew choreography," explained Devlin.
"The set-up is in fact a show in its own right," added the designer.
Dancers performed on the rooftops and in cardboard boxes on the street
During the halftime show, Dr Dre stood on the roof of a trailer designed to look like his recording studio. Rows of lights within the audience were meant to echo the rows of dials and sliders on his recording desk.
Over the course of the show, he was joined by popular artists, including rapper 50 Cent, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, who performed upbeat tracks including Next Episode and In Da Club.
"The recording studio is Dr Dre’s link and meeting point with all the other artists," explained the designer. "Much of the lived experience which informs the music heard during the show has passed through Dr Dre’s desk and hands."
"The map of Compton courses through the record producer’s hand as it hovers over the dials and switches on the 48-track recording desk," continued Devlin.
Dr Dre's recording studio was among the featured landmarks
According to Devlin, each of the venues offer visitors a multifaceted and engaging experience of the Compton music scene.
"At the start of the project, Dave Free introduced us to his Compton school friend Tremeal who took us on a tour last year," Devlin said.
"With Tremeal's guidance we began to get a sense of the complexity of this city which has produced an exceptional number of leading figures in politics, sports and music," she added.
Es Devlin is responsible for a number of high-profile stage designs, including The Weekend's Coachella music festival stage and the set of band U2's 2018 tour.
Photos are courtesy ofEs Devlin. The video is by Hamish Hamilton.
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Es Devlin creates indoor forest as venue for COP26 events
British designer Es Devlin has created the Conference of the Trees as the venue for The New York Times Climate Hub, which is running alongside the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
Named Conference of the Trees – a nod to the summit's full title, Conference of the Parties 26 – the temporary installation is made up of 197 trees and plant species.
The indoor forest forms the setting for The New York Times Climate Hub
It forms the setting for The New York Times Climate Hub at the SWG3 Arts Centre in the Scottish city, which is hosting a series of talks during the 12-day main conference.
Speakers to have appeared in the forest so far include climate activist Greta Thunberg, former US vice president Al Gore and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Greta Thunberg appeared on a panel in the forest
Trees and plants have been positioned around a low-lit clearing filled with second-hand wooden school chairs for the audience.
The number of trees and plants is significant, matching the 197 nations attending COP26 having signed the 1994 United Nations Climate Change treaty.
The chairs were previously used at a school
Devlin hoped that the tree-filled event space will have a positive impact on the talks that take place.
"There's a quality of air and smell in the room that the trees bring that has an effect on the quality of conversation," she told Dezeen.
"It's something we have all experienced – a conversation during a walk through the forest, with eyes both looking forward to the future and focused on non-human species, has a very different tone to a conversation had face to face across a table where the focus is a human form within a rectilinear frame."
Es Devlin spoke within the Conference of the Trees
The artist and set designer previously told Dezeen that the project was intended to contrast with the atmosphere of traditional conference rooms, which tend to be top-lit and rectilinear.
"I wanted to view the conference of the parties from the perspective of a non-human species bearing witness to the decisions the humans might make," she said.
Low lighting was used in contrast to the bright illumination of traditional conference halls
Trees have become a recurring theme in Devlin's work, which she traces back to reading Richard Powers' 2018 novel, The Overstory.
Earlier this year she designed the Forest for Change at the London Design Biennale, which saw 400 trees temporarily fill the courtyard of London's Somerset House in a bid to raise awareness of the United Nations' climate initiative Global Goals.
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Similarly, in a manifesto produced for the Dezeen 15 digital festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th birthday she imagined a future in which all parked cars in city centres have been replaced with trees by the year 2036.
Her studio is now planning a temporary forest of 1,000 trees in Miami, which will be planted in December.
Al Gore spoke within the forest
Architect Philip Jaffa and green infrastructure specialist Scotscape, which both also worked on the Forest for Change project, assisted Devlin's studio with Conference of the Trees.
As with the Somerset House installation, the flora making up Conference of the Trees will be replanted once COP26 has concluded with native species chosen to suit their destination at a community garden in Glasgow.
The photography is by Craig Gibson.
Conference of the Trees will be held at the New York Times Climate Hub at the SW3G Arts Centre in Glasgow from 3 to 11 November. SeeDezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
The post Es Devlin creates indoor forest as venue for COP26 events appeared first on Dezeen.
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