Memory Palace
A hypnotizing approach to the history of humankind
The latest installation at Pitzhanger Manor showcases British stage designer Es Devlin’s mapping of the human epoch. Her 18-metre wide installation fills up the entirety of the gallery, creating a white and immersive atmosphere that sets out the most crucial moments in 75 million years of human thinking. From the South African caves where humans left their first marks to the steps where climate activist Greta Thunberg first made her voice heard, Es Devlin has built a personal atlas of the collective memory. One that confronts the visitor with the power and frailty of humankind and defines the world as a place shaped by our actions and thoughts.
Memory Palace is named after the mnemonic technique that catalogues memories and stories by connecting them to physical spaces, and it is through Es Devlin’s personal memory that the installation is introduced. The artist explains how the scale model of her childhood town taught her to associate personal stories to the buildings around her: ‘In a way it was a memory palace in action: ideas, words and sounds indexed with physical architecture: I never forgot any of those stories’ (Devlin, 2019). Almost as a reminder of the subjectivity of the space, Memory Palace becomes a journey into Devlin’s own map of the world, a translation of the local small-town model into a global model showcasing the history of humanity. One that, nevertheless still gives space to individual personal stories told from mostly unsung buildings. The coexistence of individual and collective stories highlights the power of the self in defining and shifting the fates of humanity.
These individual stories don’t emerge straightaway. Before entering the installation we are confronted by an impossibly bright orange panel holding the introductory text. The panel is an intense contrast to the peaceful whiteness of the inner space. The vivid colour palette designed by Mingo Mingo Studio acts as a drawing magnetic force, entrancing the viewers further into the exhibition. Once inside, we are hypnotised by the immersive curved landscape that immediately envelopes your vision. Devlin showcases her talent as a stage designer by using mirrors to create a seemingly endless world filled with mountains, houses and monuments quadruples. We stand in front of this scene without entering it, captivated by the moon-like light that governs its geography, and the scale of our bodies against the detailed miniature buildings. The cities and landscapes, modelled with bamboo, expand chronologically before us; from the pyramids of Egypt and the Roman forum, to the Apple Campus and the iPhone factories in Shenzen. The viewer stands as a demigod looking at the history of humankind below us, inside an ethereal, white and enigmatic universe conceived by Devlin.
However, as much as we are captivated by this tour de force in stage design and by its highly ‘instagramable’ qualities, our static position, unable to enter or wander around the universe created, soon becomes an obstacle to the experience. This, partnered with the lack of information provided inside the installation, limits our experience solely to the mystery and mysticism of the space; an aesthetic enjoyment of a space that we appreciate but are unable to understand fully. The installation seems to become a Panorama in the classic 19th Century tradition, a very elaborate and intricate one, but still a constructed landscape to be watched from a viewing point. In that regard a contradiction arises when analysing the promotional images which feature Es Devlin invading the space in different positions; exploring the model from all its angles and adapting a myriad of postures that stage her as part of the installation. Contemplative and invasive in her on-brand orange dress, she seems to remind us of everything that we would like to do, yet sadly cannot. On the other hand, Es Devlin (2019) defines the installation as ‘a meditative space […] something like a chapel’ and from that perspective she has achieved her goal. The way the room embraces you is quasireligious but rather than a chapel where you can walk around and experience the architecture from different perspectives, it becomes an altar, a stage that you can look at but you are unable to reach. We are reminded of the artist’s background in stage design where the public is defined as an outsider and a voyeur, which would explain why the interaction with the visitor is not considered beyond the visual level.
To partially remedy the lack of information, once outside, there is an usually located map with a key showing all the elements in the exhibition. With a position slightly out of sight, this becomes a revelation of all the elements that we have just seen. One wonders what the best way to explore the installation is. On the one hand, a clean experience with no information enhances the mysticism of the space, while on the other, we miss the poetry of the narrative behind it, and only experience it as an afterthought. In an ideal world we would want to enter the installation multiple times in order to relate it to its narrative but unfortunately the restricted access limits that option.
To further the exploration of the narrative, Devlin has conceived a continuation of the exhibition inside Sir John Soane’s library. Here we encounter all her sources of research set around a central table; a Last Supper book display that runs through Devlin’s vision of the history of humanity and connects them to the points set in the map of the installation. This concluding extension appears as an attempt to offer a section more connected to the narrative although lacking the magnetism of the central artwork.
Memory Palace seems to be the culmination of an exploration of certain themes in Devlin’s career: model cities, mirrors and experimentation with scales. When exploring her portfolio, two previous works stand out due to their similarities: Egg and Mask in Motion. The former one being a building promotion inside a residential sales gallery and the latter an installation part of the London Design Biennale that imposed projections over a map of London. Arguably the use of projections, light changes and movement, which appear in both and feature throughout Devlin’s celebrated career, could have been applied here to create a more complete experience. Perhaps one where the information was readily available in an immersive, and even interactive, way. And one that doesn’t require hunting for an out of sight map that holds the key to the exhibition.
Es Devlin Memory Palace continues until the 12 January 2020 at Pitzhanger Manor.
Additional resources
1.Trailer for ‘Abstract: The Art of Design | Es Devlin | Netflix https://vimeo.com/283789296
2.Es Devlin, All the World’s her Stage (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2019/sep/29/designer-es-devlin-all-the-worlds-her-stage
Bibliography
Devlin, E. (2019) Memory Palace. Exhibition held at Pitzhanger Manor, London 2019[Exhibition text].
Devlin, E. (2019) ‘Es Devlin maps history with a perspective-bending installation at Pitzhanger Manor’. Interview with Es Devlin. Interviewed by J. Klingelfuss for Wallpaper, 30 September. Available at: https://www.wallpaper.com/art/es-devlinpitzhanger-manor-gallery-london (Accessed: 17 October 2019).
▄ Virgilio Paricio de Castro
Virgilio Paricio de Castro is a student at Kingston University, studying the MA in Curating Contemporary Design. Virgilio has a background in Design, holding degrees from Elisava School of Design and the University of Barcelona. Aside from his studies, he works as a curator and researcher at Double Decker, a company specialised in curating art for both hospitality and cultural institutions. In his spare time, Virgilio can be seen playing with his dog Linus, a beautiful Eurasier.Editor: Carmel Wilkinson-Ayre
