THINKING IN BETWEEN

Es Devlin, who is the most prominent set designer in the world, thinks like a transparent drawer.

In Andrew O’Hagen’s article, Imaginary Spaces, in the 28 March 16 issue of The New Yorker, he writes,

“Devlin argues that there is something in between pictorial realism and complete abstraction”

That is what I have been talking about for quite some time. And it has taken a New Yorker writer to say it that clearly. This goes back to some of our previous discussion on abstraction and realism.

This is a major statement. And it pertains to one of the most creative set designers ever. Of course, I had never heard of Es Devlin, so I did my Google Image search. Mr. O’Hagen writes of the transparent natures of Ms. Devlin’s designs.

And I found this photo of one of her sets. Certainly, these set pieces, given their translucency, are indeed between realism and abstraction.  The pieces are of course resonant with a classical architectural order.  And in these pages, we have studied classical architecture transparently.

And it seems that what powers her work is her ability to design at the heart of the play or performance. You might say that her work has such relevance precisely because she is not thinking either pictorially or abstractly.

Or, again, as Mr. O’Hagen so eloquently writes,

“She is in demand because she can enter the psychic ether of each production and make it glow with significance.”

I wonder what her drawings are like. Are they, by chance, transparent? I wonder if she tries to make drawings that are transparent? Or maybe she just draws transparently without thinking about it.

The ability to imagine and work in the realm between abstraction and realism might indeed be the new frontier.

At least Es Devlin seems to think so.