The seemingly unexpected feud between Lorde, Kanye West and Kid Cudi has taken another turn, as the stage designer behind the idea has weighed in.
In case you missed it, Lorde took to her Instagram story earlier this week and accused Kanye West and Kid Cudi, as Kids See Ghosts, of stealing the idea of her set design by performing in a large, transparent, floating box.
However, Es Devlin – the woman behind the floating box on Lorde’s Melodrama World Tour – has chimed in, and says that Kids See Ghosts did not steal.
She took to Instagram to post another use of the design for the English National Opera’s performance of Carmen all the way back in 2007. This seemingly goes against Lorde’s claim that:
a) she came up with the idea herself.
b) that it was stolen from her.
“The idea of a floating glass box of course is not in any way new and the geometry precedes all of us. The form finds another layer of resonance in each new context,” Devlin wrote on Instagram.
“I did not design the recent Kids See Ghosts performance: I worked with Lorde on the design for her Coachella performance : I admire both and see no imitation at work here: I think the more interesting point is that both artists, responding to our dis-jointed times, are being drawn to this gesture of the fragile floating room: the world un-moored from gravity : where the rules of civilisation and identity as we have known them may soon no longer apply.”
It should also be noted that that one who did design the Kids See Ghosts stage was the company Trask House. The owner of that company, John McGuire. spoke to New York Times about the controversy.
“(Lorde) wasn’t the first person to use a floating glass box, she won’t be the last,” he said. “She doesn’t own it, her designer didn’t invent it.”
Read Devlin’s full Instagram post below.
