The Devils in the Detail

On the surface it would appear that Rik Clay was wrong about this year’s Olympics ceremony. However, a deeper look at the details reveals there is a lot more going on than map references, and name syncs, to what we are currently birthing with these ‘rituals’.

Events like the Olympics do serve up some great entertainment, visually stunning, and replete with all your favourite ‘stars’. We are so mesmerised by the mask in front of us, we don’t care who is wearing it, we watch the spectacle and we have fun, while all along a message is being conveyed. What is it?

Others have made connections with the recent Aurora shootings and the synchronistic elements of this ceremony, and there is definitely an ‘air’ of suspicion that something more profound is taking place.

Es Devlin is an award winning set-designer and one of the creators of last night’s closing ceremony. Her resume is an impressive mix of classical and modern productions, including all the current pop ‘legends’, and of all things, the arena show called ‘Batman Live’!


Batman Live 2010

The Olympics closing ceremony gives us a nod to her previous work.

Only fools and horses work… the mantra of the Banksters perhaps?

Es Devlin has also been involved in creating the set for a community opera, a contemporary style re-telling of the Camelot story, with young people from a London community wearing hoodies and masks, going by the name of ‘Knight Crew’ fighting a modern day King Arthur of Avalon.


Knight Crew - Meet the Designer from Glyndebourne on Vimeo.

As with the Aurora shooting, the other sync element has been the occurrence of Red Hair in the media. It would seem there are a lot more red-heads around than previously thought. I lost count at the amount featured in the ceremony, not to mention the satanic red-wiged dancing clowns. However, Britain’s favourite red-head of the moment, Ed Sheeran, did turn up to sing Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish you were here’.

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.



Emphasis on the Red?

The ears are a dead give-away!



Phoenix Rises in Dark Blood

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/river-phoenixs-last-film-dark-blood-finished-357228

Ronald may be in need of a makeover

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9440712/Street-artists-hit-out-at-authoritarian-Olympics.html

No sign of Wenlock and Mandeville, nor any UFOs for that matter, but a giant luminous octopus did make an appearance while Jesse Jay sang “Why is everybody so Sirius?”



Who's having the calamari?

Es Devlin was also responsible for assisting in a production for the English National Opera, ‘Gaddafi: A Living Myth’. It starts with the Libyan resistance leader Omar Al-Mukhtar being hanged by the neck by Italian troops according to those have seen it!

Another interesting facet of the design for the opening ceremony was the use of newspaper clippings – where everything, including the stage floor, is covered in tabloid headlines and news. A glimpse of some standouts include wording from Shakespeare, the Bible, and even Martian Poetry...

“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”. British poetry movement of the late 70s: Through the heavy use of curious, exotic and humorous visual metaphors, Martian Poetry aimed to break the grip of 'the familiar', by describing ordinary things in unfamiliar ways, as though, for example, through the eyes of a Martian.

So we are back, full-circle to what the Devils in the detail are hiding in plain sight, the secret message, if you like.

Do you know what it says?