Chris Evans at CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel

Artist: Chris Evans

Exhibition title: Village Lawyer

Venue: CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Date: May 26 – July 10, 2018

Photography: Anton Satus / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel

Jingle
2016–ongoing

Speaker, installed next to entrance, at height of vital organs, photo-electric sensor. Audio with Morten Norbye Halvorsen and Edouard Clottu.

The artist asks after the host’s financial stability. If stable, then farmer; if not, then an accountant is asked to mimic a non-specific percussive phrase. tv bass – line is added, connoting a scenic transition.

Coptalk
2005–ongoing

A letter is sent out to a contact within an art school. (For a country to have an effec-tive police force, its employees should reflect the demographics of society.) This is accompanied by a second letter – to be adapted and trans-lated accordingly and sent out by the art school – inviting a representative of the local police force to offer vocational advice to the art students. The former entertains the possi-bility of the latter’s future in the police force.

Twenty 63 ¥ 48 cm silkscreened posters announce “Séance de recrutement de la police neuchâteloise, destinée aux étudi-ants en art visuels de l’académie de Meuron”, or applicable local phrasing; one is hung at the school.

The poster depicts a landscape with what could be described as a rock or a sculpture, with a stationary Lamborghini Countach (painted in the livery of the Dutch police force).

Untitled (Drippy Etiquette)
2014

Scorched & oiled larch poles, framed airbrush drawings.

Pole 13 cm . Drawings 106 ¥ 82 cm. Blackened larch poles are cut to the width of a transitional space, which is narrowed by a 3 cm frame, wedging each pole at an angle. Inside the frame is an airbrush drawing on Financial Times pink, of two worms, emerging, blinking in the bright light behind them. In a speech bubble, one asks “Is that The Sun or the Morning Star?”

Nearby, the host’s recent subscription has produced an ample stack of editions of Morning Star. Open letter to its editors also available on request at the reception.

A Sculpture for the Councillor of Culture (Neuchâtel)
2018

Glazed ceramic elipsoid, mounted on black powder-coated dogleg.

Elipsoid 40 ¥ 50 cm. Framed drawing 110 ¥ 85 cm.

A proposal, assisted by Fra Angelico frescoes in a monastic setting, is passed from the host to the presiding Councillor for Culture: to display a public sculpture on his home, adjacent to a window of his choosing, for the councilman’s contem – plation. Said sculpture – a ceramic elipsoid whose coloured glaze complements the shutter’s paintwork – is donated to the city, to be relocated and recoloured on the following councillor’s accession.

An airbrushed artist’s impression hangs in the gallery – seen from opposite the councillor’s pov – with minor changes to architectural details.

Home Economics
2018

Ceramic hobs, resin, nigella seeds, poppy seeds, mustard seeds, chilli powders, cress seeds, cumin, safron, dill, caraway seeds, coriander.

59 ¥ 52 ¥ 4 cm.

Resinous slicks fix herbs and spices on two pairs and one individual generic model of ceramic induction hob, hung vertically.

Cowlick
2018

Wax, pigmented jesmonite, glass, powder-coated steel frames.

115 ¥ 88 cm.

Four molds are licked – cast, re-cast, and embedded in pigmented jesmonite (grey, blue) and wax (cream, cream) – by the tongues of a herd of Charolais cattle. These are framed by five transaction win-dows with Speak-Through holes posi-tioned in relation to the relief sculpture.

An accompanying text by Holly Pester is commissioned:

Chris Evans, exhibition view, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Chris Evans, Coptalk, 2005–ongoing, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018 (At Académie de Meuron, Neuchâtel)

Chris Evans, Jingle, 2016–ongoing, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Chris Evans, Untitled (Drippy Etiquette), 2014, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Chris Evans, A sculpture for the Councillor of Culture (Neuchâtel), 2018, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Chris Evans, Home Economics, 2018, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Chris Evans, Cowlick, 2018, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Marylin Makes Futures (sestina), poem, 2018, accompanying text by Holly Pester commissioned by Chris Evans, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018

Booklet, graphic design & text by Will Holder, 2018, Village Lawyer, CAN centre d’art Neuchâtel, 2018