Concept Drawings | Bon Iver Stage Environment
Left: initial concept drawing, right: view of the set installed at the Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2018
project notes—
Merging my drawing style with designer Michael Brown’s vision for a cavernous performance space, this set design, titled: Candle Wax is built from organic forms reminiscent of hanging moss, ice drifts, and dripping wax.
Michael first approached me to create concept drawings for a stage after he saw seeing some of my work in Nashville. It sounded exciting and challenging to create sketches for the design team to build from, and to reimagine my detailed pen and ink works, which to me already had so much spatial possibility, into a full fledged environment.
After meeting to discuss Micheal’s vision for a stage to commemorate the 10th anniversary of For Emma, Forever Ago’s release - I worked from schematics of the touring stage and collected photographs of melted wax Micheal had saved from the last tour as a point of departure. I was fascinated by the ambiguity of the forms and also looked at frozen ice flows and waterfalls to help me build the drawing’s atmosphere.
The final drawings for the stage embody that sense of suspended flow, a perfect metaphor for both the haunting music of Bon Iver’s 2007 album: For Emma, Forever Ago and the sonic time capsule an album can create.
For more information on my collaborator, Michael Brown, and his amazing light and design work for the stage you can find him on Instagram, or read about his work on Cool Hunting.
+Photo credit: Michael Brown Design & Lee Butterworth