The show unfolds across three spaces: Visitors first enter a replica of Es Devlin’s south London studio, full of 50 chalk and charcoal portraits in progress. The second room presents a new edition of her projection-mapped Congregation installation, first shown at St Mary Le Strand in October. The third room contains a series of new works including painted LED screens and projection mapped painted glass layered portraits.
Over a period of four months, 50 strangers arrived, one by one, at Es Devlin’s studio in south London. She knew only their first name and that, at some point in their life, they sought refuge in London. She made chalk and charcoal portraits of each participant, carrying out the first 45 minutes of the drawing session without talking, and without any knowledge of her sitter/co-author’s story or circumstances. After 45 minutes the drawing was paused while the co-author told Devlin their story. She then resumed the drawing and completed the work while listening to podcasts about the conflict from which her sitter sought sanctuary.
1-ES-DEVLIN-STUDIO-PHOTOGRAPH-by-Es-Devlin.jpg
The recreation of Devlin’s studio includes footage of the portraits being drawn as well as notes, sketches, books and research materials, painted studies and a short film about the making of the work.
In the second room, Congregation, the drawings are presented as a projection-mapped tiered structure similar to the one shown at St Mary Le Strand church in October. The sound installation, by Polyphonia, includes poetry by the Kinshasa born poet JJ Bola as well as the voices of many of the other co-authors. The score includes fragments of Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the soundtrack to the drawing sessions. It culminates in a reworking of Anton Bruckner’s sacred motet Locus Iste (This Place) which fuses the voices of the London Bulgarian Choir, The South African Cultural Gospel Choir UK, Genesis Sixteen and The Choir of King’s College London.
The projected film sequence has been created in close collaboration with film maker Ruth Hogben, Treatment Studio and choreographer Botis Seva, and features dancer Joshua Shanny-Wynter.
CONGREGATION-ES-DEVLIN-10-PHOTOGRAPH-BY-DANIEL-DEVLIN.jpg
The final room introduces a series of new works, including a painted plasma TV and projection-mapped layers of painted glass over chalk and charcoal portraits.
“I began each portrait without knowing my sitter/co-author’s story. For the first forty-five minutes I was drawing not only a portrait of a stranger, but also a portrait of the assumptions I inevitably overlay: I was drawing my own perspectives and biases. I was trying to draw in order to better perceive and understand the structures of separation, the architectures of otherness that I suspect may stand between us and the porosity to others that we are capable of feeling when these structures soften.”
Es Devlin
A collaboration with The Courtauld, King’s College London, and UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
More information about each co-author and the conflicts from which they seek sanctuary along with an essay by Ekow Eshun about the work can be found at www.unrefugees.org.uk/esdevlin-congregation.
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Interviews with Es Devlin about the making of the work are available on the Bloomberg Connects App.
The Courtauld has published an exhibition catalogue, available at available at The Courtauld shop for £25, with £20 from each sale going to UNHCR UK. Additionally, a series of limited-edition prints and postcards of works in the exhibition are available, with proceeds supporting UK for UNHCR.