At the UN headquarters in New York last month, I was sitting not far from the Sudanese-American poet Emi Mahmoud when she got up to perform her work and brought a room of 200 people to tears, to their feet, to their senses. Her poems propel her experience of conflict and migration directly into the guts of everyone who hears and reads her. You would never again be able to see a refugee as “other” after hearing Emi speak. A good dose of her for our current government would go down a treat. 4. Opera Devlin’s work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Over the past decade her art practice has engaged with biodiversity, linguistic diversity, and collective AI-generated poetry. She views the audience as a temporary society and encourages profound cognitive shifts by inviting public participation in communal choral works.

British artist and stage designer Es Devlin (born 1971) is renowned for large-scale installations and sculptures that transform audiences across theater, music, architecture, and activism. This first monographic exhibition showcases the never-before-seen, small-scale works that lead to her monumental architectures. The soundscapes created by Polyphonia aka composers Jade Pybus and Andy Theakstone include music from Es Devlin’s hugely popular immersive artworks A Forest of Us (2021) at Superblue, Miami, BLUESKYWHITE (2021) at 180 Studios, London, and several new works that will be shown in her new exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum of Design, New York (2023). She was the subject of the Netflix documentary “Abstract: The Art of Design,” and has received multiple Olivier, Tony and Emmy awards, as well as an Ivor Novello award and a CBE. About Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum An Atlas of Es Devlin, the first monograph on Devlin’s genre-defying practice, is an experiential publication encompassing art, activism, theater, poetry, music, dance, opera and sculpture. These technologies are used for things like personalised ads, to limit how many times you see an ad, to understand usage via Google Analytics, to understand how you got to our web properties, to ensure that we understand the audience and can provide relevant ads

About Es Devlin

Cooper Hewitt is America’s design museum. Inclusive, innovative and experimental, the museum’s dynamic exhibitions, education programs, master’s program, publications and online resources inspire, educate and empower people through design. An integral part of the Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum, education and research complex—Cooper Hewitt is located on New York City’s Museum Mile in the landmarked Carnegie Mansion. Steward of one of the world’s most diverse and comprehensive design collections—over 215,000 objects that range from an ancient Egyptian faience cup dating to about 1100 BC to contemporary 3D-printed objects and digital code—Cooper Hewitt welcomes everyone to discover the importance of design and its power to change the world. Her expansive mirrored “Forest of Us” invites viewers to inhabit the visual symmetry between the bronchial structures that allow people to breathe and the branching tree geometries that make breathing possible. The installation is still on view, having inaugurated Superblue Miami alongside new works by James Turrell in 2020. A giant projection of Devlin’s hand appears to slice through one of the studio walls, inviting a journey through Devlin’s archive of never-before-seen paintings, drawings, paper sculptures, sketches and revolving cardboard models. Projected imagery transforms many of the humble cardboard sculptures into replicas of the final large-scale luminous edifices. An Atlas—A Film

Curatorial interns and fellows assisted with research and development: Madelyn Colonna, Bailey de Vries, Barbara Kasomenakis, and Sophie Scott. Reflecting on a three-decade career with a client list that reads like the guestlist of the Grammys, even Es Devlin can’t resist the urge to flirt with what could have been. Having studied English Literature and Fine Art at Bristol University and London’s Central Saint Martins, respectively, Devlin admits that her hunger for visual ingenuity and flair for the poetic almost led her into the headline-grabbing world of 1990s contemporary art. Remembering the way she looked up to the divisive YBA movement of the era, she recognises how close she came to making steps in their direction. “I had a job on a little opera project that Damien Hirst was doing in Scotland that was sort of entering into that little world, but I didn’t go that way because, at the time, I guess I felt uncomfortable with the commodification of art,” she says today. Made in collaboration with contemporary composers, Polyphonia, and video designer, Luke Halls, An Atlas of Es Devlin brings together poetry and prose that's inspired Devlin’s personal art practice since 2016 – and presents them as an illuminated ‘collective reading’ experience. At the Manchester international festival in July, I was among a small seated audience observing a replica of photographer/artist/hip-hop choreographer Benji Reid’s studio, as he composed and photographed a triptych of dancers in a series of formations expressing moments of his life. There is so much beauty, precision, love and compassion entailed in making a work of art but it’s very unusual that a piece exposes that process to its audience. This is a uniquely generous work in that it shares the honesty and vulnerability of the act of making. 3. PoetryAn Atlas of Es Devlin’, a comprehensive look at how to make stage design great, brings together a chorus of collaborators to celebrate the artist's work I couldn’t even put my finger on why I didn’t go that route as a student,” says Devlin. “But at the time, I felt much more comfortable walking into a room full of people staying up all night making model theatres, and I think you make those decisions based on which rooms you want to stay in, versus which rooms you just want to walk out of. But I guess after 30 years of collaborating, I’m interested to see what I might do without collaborating as well.” These are embellished with in-depth interviews with her many ‘collaborators’ (Devlin preferring the term over ‘clients’), including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pharrell Williams, Brian Eno, and many more. Throughout these conversations and the wider volume, the artist details her views on the audience as a form of ‘temporary society’, her current engagement with the cultural response to our climate and civilizational crisis, and the dialogue between music, poetry and the physical manifestation of ideas in her sculpture. There are a small number of Blue Badge spaces along Water St and Quay St. Otherwise head towards Liverpool Road, Great John St and Lower Byrom St – close to our neighbours, the Science and Industry Museum where there are a small number of additional Blue Badge spaces.

The installation invites everyone to come and experience the monumental space that the artist has created for Free Your Mind. Find yourself surrounded by coloured light, sound and music, while contemplating a series of meditative texts read by Devlin herself. There are additional accessible toilets in located in both Hall Foyers, at stalls and circle level. The genre-defying British contemporary artist and designer Es Devlin is globally renowned for her large-scale, illuminated installations and sculptures for performances. Her wide-ranging practice, which began in small-scale theater, has been experienced by millions in some of the world’s most prominent museums, galleries, opera houses, arena, and stadia. Her highly collaborative work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Devlin views the audience as a temporary society and invites public participation in communal works to encourage profound cognitive shifts. Come Home Again,” her 16-meter-high monumental choral sculpture outside Tate Modern, drew over 7,000 visitors each day to join diverse London choirs and species in choral song during its showing in September 2022. Her rotating illuminated sculpture, “Your Voices ,” entangled viewers within the 700 languages spoken in New York City in collaboration with the Endangered Language Alliance in December 2022. The exhibition's been made in parallel with Devlin's first monographic book as well as her first record – presented as a limited-edition vinyl LP by The Vinyl Factory.

Marc Kristal’s new biography of artist Pauline Boty brings an era to life in its celebration of her tragically short but highly influential career Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “An Atlas of Es Devlin” from Nov. 18 through Aug. 11, 2024. The genre-defying British contemporary artist and designer Es Devlin (b. 1971) is globally renowned for her large-scale, illuminated installations and sculptures for performances. Her wide-ranging practice, which began in small-scale theater, has been experienced by millions in some of the world’s most prominent museums, galleries, opera houses, arena and stadia. Her highly collaborative work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Devlin views the audience as a temporary society and invites public participation in communal works to encourage profound cognitive shifts. Opening up the mesmerising set of Free Your Mind for exploration , the installation is free to attend and open to all. The exhibition was curated by Andrea Lipps, Associate Curator of Contemporary Design and Head, Digital Curatorial Department, and by Julie Pastor, Curatorial Assistant. You will first arrive into the Social, a large public space where there are a range of seats (including those with arms), a bar and toilets (including accessible toilets and a Changing Places facility).

New Antonio Citterio book chronicles the Milanese architect's most celebrated designs, from Technogym's sleek product range to furniture for Flexform, Cassina and more Cooper Hewitt continues to push the boundaries and contribute to a more expansive definition of what design means today and how it relates to the complex world around us,” said Maria Nicanor, director of Cooper Hewitt. “Es’ work and her multidisciplinary practice embody that profound intention, which is so important to communicate to our audiences as the nation’s design museum.” The Studio Becomes a Show Es Devlin’s Forest for Change – The Global Goals Pavilion, created in partnership with Project Everyone for London Design Biennale, is now live atSomerset House’s central square, with 400 trees in a bid to spark debate on the path to a better world An Atlas of Es Devlin” is organized by Andrea Lipps, associate curator of contemporary design and head, Digital Collecting, and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant.For her first monographic museum exhibition, Devlin will install her 30-year archive across the third floor of the museum. “An Atlas of Es Devlin” will feature over 300 sketches, paintings, illuminated paper cuts and projection-mapped rotating miniature sculptures that form the seeds of some of the most iconic, cultural congregations of music, poetry, art and activism in recent times. Reflecting on the political atmosphere of her formative years, and the emergence of her definitive sense of belonging, she adds, “The more economics books I read, the more I realise how much economic choices have governed our cultural experience and our climate experience. A lot of them were seeded in that 1980s period, and in that intention there’s no such thing as society, only the individual. I think something in me already knew that that was false, and I think being in rooms of collectives felt like some kind of antidote to that. Whereas being in a room on my own and celebrating my individuality wasn’t what I wanted to do at the time.” Exhibition design by Es Devlin Studio, with designers of record and fabrication by Pink Sparrow. Graphic design by Morcos Key. Support Cameo portraits! Antique coins! Keys!Nicolas Ghesquière takesan archaelogical dig through the Italian design giant's archives for Louis Vuitton's A/W 2021 womenswear collection Devlin’s protean work is rooted in a lifelong practice of reading and drawing, especially sketching in the margins of texts. The final gallery is filled with the texts that have guided Devlin’s work—from the plays, song lyrics and opera libretti that have informed her performance sculptures to the works of fiction, poetry, geo-philosophy, anthropological economics, biology and climate science at the root of her art practice over the past decade. The texts are brought to life with a program of collective readings, and visitors are invited to participate in a cumulative artwork while gaining insights to inform their own practice and purpose. Publication