Studies, Sphere

Staged 2023, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

“I made this series of paintings at my kitchen table while talking through ideas with U2’s director Willie Williams. The paintings are based on concepts we developed for the band’s inaugural residency at the new Sphere venue in Las Vegas. We aimed to cast the Sphere in concrete, to declare its weighty materiality, then to split it apart to reveal a Las Vegas that eventually unbuilt itself. We called the final sequence ‘Nevada Ark.’ It dedicated the building to Nevada’s endangered species.”

—Es Devlin

A paper with light yellow, layered designs and a circle cutout placed in the center; the circle has a black and white pattern of small birds, insects, and plants.

Es Devlin, Study, Sphere, Mixed media on paper.
Staged 2023, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A paper with a textured, red circle in the center that is cut in half, horizontally, and slightly parted revealing another similar paper behind it.

Es Devlin, Study, Sphere, Mixed media on paper.
Staged 2023, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Three papers pinned to a wall with a different textured circle in the center of each; from left to right, they are black, gray, and red.

Es Devlin, Studies, Sphere, Mixed media on paper.
Staged 2023, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A paper with a textured, black circle in the center that is cut in half, vertically, and slightly parted revealing another similar paper behind it.

Es Devlin, Study, Sphere, Mixed media on paper.
Staged 2023, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Studies, Sphere

An Atlas of Es Devlin

Your journey so far

All pages

An Infinite Archive

Studio

Iris

Archive Unboxed

Sculptures, Ideas to Forms

Studies, Abel’s Mask

Studies, After Hours Til Dawn

Studies, Bangerz

Studies, Come Home Again

Studies, Electric

Studies, Experience + Innocence

Studies, Flag: Burning

Studies, Forest of Us

Studies, Fundamental

Studies, Hello

Studies, Innocence + Experience

Studies, Legend of the Fall

Studies, Memory Palace

Studies, Mirror Maze

Studies, PoemPortraits

Studies, Sphere

Studies, Unknown Soldier

Studies, Witness

Study, Die Tote Stadt

Study, Don Giovanni

Study, Free Your Mind

Model, Atlas

Model, Betrayal

Model, Don Giovanni

Model, Fundamental

Model, Howie the Rookie

Model, La Caja Mágica / The Seed

Model, Legend of the Fall

Model, Macbeth

Model, Parsifal

Model, The Hunt

Model, The Lehman Trilogy

Sculpture, Songs for Sorrow

Model, Abel’s Mask

Model, Bangerz

Model, Carmen

Model, Chimerica

Model, Compton Super Bowl

Model, Flag: Burning

Model, Hello

Model, Innocence + Experience

Model, Les Troyens

Model, Progress

Model, London Olympics

Study, Dynamic Cube

Study, Perforated Screen

Model, Come Home Again

Model, Five Echoes

Model, Forest of Us

Model, Infinite Library

Model, Memory Palace

Model, Mirror Maze

Model, Please Feed the Lions

Model, Poem Pavilion

Model, Redraw the Edges of Your Self

Model, Room 2022

Model, Your Voices

Model, Zoetrope

Theater in a Box

Films

Book Unbound