Installation, Archive Unboxed

This installation recreates the piles of artworks the curators encountered as they unboxed Devlin’s archive. It contains early sketchbooks, paintings, collages, diaries, and prints Devlin produced as a student and at the start of her professional practice. Her earliest work starts at the right on the wall behind you.


Observational drawing was fundamental to Devlin’s artistic training. She explored ways of representing the human form and its environment, sketching models in classes and strangers on the train as well as portraits of teachers, friends, family, and herself. Experimenting with scale, she forced organic bodies into tight geometric spaces and extended the human form into maps and musical instruments. As Devlin began designing for theater, dance, and opera, she played with lines of light and became fascinated with the arterial networks of veins and trees. Many themes of these early studies continue to inform her current practice.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition An Atlas of Es Devlin.