Chris Evans
Born in 1967 in Eastrington (United Kingdom), Chris Evans lives and works in London.
He is represented by the Juliette Jongma gallery (Amsterdam).
Statement
Chris Evans works in a collaborative fashion, driving “projects” rather than works in the classical sense of the term. These productions are the fruit of discussions and exchanges with different speakers, entrepreneurs, politicians and other artists, whereby Chris Evans can be said to assume the role of consultant or advisor. Supported by theoretical texts, preoccupied with social and sociological questions, his approach provokes a shift in the role of the artist in today’s society. His works, which also include a strong narrative dimension, echo the works of artists like Liam Gillick and Ben Kinmont.
Clods II, 2013
Installation, plaster, yoga mat, plinth
Variable dimensions
Unique piece
Acquisition in 2013
An installation placed on ground level, Clods is made up of a wooden baseboard, a yoga mat and a plaster sculpture. The work materializes a sort of urban space, a maquette seen from above, observed by the public. The baseboard and the mat define the horizontal parameters and the plaster sculpture bears traces of holes, left by the metal pipes. These holes in the lump of concrete are also evocative of its brutal displacement. The different elements may be said to constitute sorts of artefacts, objects with a symbolic dimension, merging together. Displayed in such a dispassionate fashion, they create a dialectical situation between the animate and the inanimate. In addition to the baseboard and the mat, the ground of the exhibition space serves as another supporting surface for the installation as a whole, establishing a game by defining a new spatial landscape. A specific contextual memory is at the root of the work – a riot, occurring in Hull prison (United Kingdom) in 1976, where prisoners protesting against the brutality of the wardens, caused major damage to the premises. The artist remembers images of “ducts, metal pipes and signposts, plucked from the ground like weeds”. In a way, the artist has transposed the memory of a social situation onto a more generic form, developed in the different works that make up the Clods series, from which this piece is taken.