Es Devlin Stuns Coachella Audience With Humongous Cracked Mask Sculpture
Breathtaking set design for The Weeknd.
Last night, The Weeknd took the Coachella 2018 stage as the first headliner to perform a medley of hit songs such as “Pray for Me,” “Call Out My Name” and more. Acclaimed British stage designer Es Devlin created a humongous new sculpture for the singer’s set design. A 30-foot-tall cracked mask accompanied with unwavering projection-mapped lighting appeared in the backdrop as Abel Tesfaye wooed audiences with his signature tracks inspired by oft-repeated themes of post-breakup devastation and unrequited love.
“I have been working with the idea of concert sculptures as ‘pop portraiture’: thinking about masks, makeup, enlarged film relay and how this communicates character: how intimacy can be achieved at a grand scale,” Devlin explained to It’s Nice That. “Abel’s face was 3D scanned, the file was manipulated to achieve the linear striations that are common to certain schools of African masks.”
View the set design above and head over to Es Devlin’s official website to view more projects. For more design news, take a look at Samuel Ross and Jobe Burns’ new concrete objects COLLECTION 2.
