How Es Devlin Set The Stage For Beyoncé's Renaissance
Es Devlin speaks to Vogue about Renaissance and redlining below.
The Renaissance tour was such a success; what was the creation of that set like?
That particular artist, Beyoncé, is such a renaissance woman. She is a complete perfectionist. She is a conductor of energy; she sees that as her role, that’s what she was put on this earth to do. A performer’s clothes are their armour and for her to get over that protective device to showcase young designers’ work is so generous of spirit, and a brilliant way to culturally interweave.
We were making that show over many, many years. It really only came together quite late. I said, “Well, why don’t we just do a hole?” She and I relate to each other quite a lot, in that we’re both working mothers. A lot of the work she’d be making during the pandemic was about the tension between mothering her art and mothering her children. This idea of a hole: the hole within you, the hole outside, the giving of the hole, the receiving – all of them, it’s endless! And this combination of the geometry of the frame and the circularity of the hole in the frame. She and I both just respond to that.
She doesn’t get tired; it’s extraordinary. When we were rehearsing the show, me and Fatima Robinson, the legendary hip-hop choreographer, would finish the rehearsal… at 2:30am, so by the time we got out of the venue, it was 3am. We’re in the cab going back to our hotel and Bey was texting Fatima going, “Right, shall we do notes?” We’re going to bed!
The Renaissance tour was such a success; what was the creation of that set like?
That particular artist, Beyoncé, is such a renaissance woman. She is a complete perfectionist. She is a conductor of energy; she sees that as her role, that’s what she was put on this earth to do. A performer’s clothes are their armour and for her to get over that protective device to showcase young designers’ work is so generous of spirit, and a brilliant way to culturally interweave.
We were making that show over many, many years. It really only came together quite late. I said, “Well, why don’t we just do a hole?” She and I relate to each other quite a lot, in that we’re both working mothers. A lot of the work she’d be making during the pandemic was about the tension between mothering her art and mothering her children. This idea of a hole: the hole within you, the hole outside, the giving of the hole, the receiving – all of them, it’s endless! And this combination of the geometry of the frame and the circularity of the hole in the frame. She and I both just respond to that.
She doesn’t get tired; it’s extraordinary. When we were rehearsing the show, me and Fatima Robinson, the legendary hip-hop choreographer, would finish the rehearsal… at 2:30am, so by the time we got out of the venue, it was 3am. We’re in the cab going back to our hotel and Bey was texting Fatima going, “Right, shall we do notes?” We’re going to bed!