Cerith Wyn Evan’s conceptual practice incorporates a wide range of media, including installation works, sculptures, photography, film and text.
Wyn Evans began his career as a video and filmmaker, initially assisting Derek Jarman, and then making short, experimental films during the 1980s. Since the 1990s, his work could be characterised by its focus on language and perception, as well as its precise, conceptual clarity that is often developed out of the context of the exhibition site or its history. For Wyn Evans, installations should work like a catalyst: a reservoir of possible meanings that can unravel many discursive journeys. Moreover, his work has a highly refined aesthetic that is often informed by this deep interest in film history and literature. Indeed, Wyn Evans’ earlier creators often inhabit his work, an indication of his desire to keep their ideas in play or bring them back to life in order to use them as raw material for future thought. Often his works harness the potential of language to create moments of rupture and delight, where romantic longing, desire and reality conjoin. His ‘Firework’ pieces, for example, are wooden structures that spell out open-ended texts that burn over a designated period of time. His ‘Chandelier’ sculptures evoke notions of otherworldly communication by using sections of texts that have been translated into the flashing light signals of Morse Code. In his film and slide installations, such as The Curves of the Needle (2003), Wyn Evans manipulates sound to form a parallel ‘text’ to the visuals, where meaning is opened up by the unexpected slippage that occurs when the soundtrack is dislodged, changed or removed.
Cerith Wyn Evans lives and works in London. In 2003, he represented Wales in the 50th Venice Biennale and has participated in the 9th International Istanbul Biennial (2005), Yokohama Triennale (2008) and will be in the forthcoming Aichi Triennale this summer (2010). Last year, he collaborated with Florian Hecker and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary on ‘No night No day’ at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). Recent solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Graz (2005), Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris (2006), MUSAC, Leon (2008), Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2009) and Tramway, Glasgow (2009).
| Artworks | |
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| Related Texts | |
| CV | |
| Bibliography | |
| Exhibitions | |
| ''Everyone's gone to the movies, now we're alone at last...'' 14 Apr—22 May 2010 | |
| Signatures of the Invisible 30 Nov—12 Jan 2008 | |
| The Curves of the Needle 21 Apr—20 May 2006 | |
| Look at that picture How does it appear to you now? Does is seem to be Persisting? 31 Oct—6 Dec 2003 | |
| Inverse Reverse Perverse 19 Apr—25 May 1996 | |
| Editions | |
| Brasilia 01.09.04 C-type Print | |
| Sakura Edition of 60 | |
| Take my eyes and through them see you Edition of 200, signed and numbered | |
| The Return of the Return of the Return of the Durutti Column Edition of 25 | |
| With the advent of Radio Astronomy... (Clear) Edition of 25 | |
| With the advent of Radio Astronomy... (Grey) Edition of 25 | |
| Artist's Publications Available in the Bookshop |
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| Look at that picture… 2003 | |
| Related Links | |
| http://www.tate.org.uk/brit... Tate Online | |
| http://www.cca-kitakyushu.o... CCA Kitakyushu, Tokyo | |
| http://www.mfa.org/exhibiti... Museum of Fine Art, Boston | |
| http://www.tate.org.uk/serv... Tate Online | |
| http://lac.lufthansa.com/en... Lufthansa | |
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