Simple, elegant, harmonious: These words do not seem to be in Cliff Evans' vocabulary. Instead, words like "complex," "busy" and "cacophony" are better suited to describe the artwork of this young artist, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums' artist-in-residence.
Evans' contemporary digital artwork is high-paced and disorienting and force the viewer to search hard for the message embedded within. Like much of today's media, Evans' work reflects the continual sorting of a flood of images and text competing for attention. "Cliff Evans: Empyrean," his first solo museum show, is an overstimulating pop-culture critique packaged in a wealth of images that intrigue and reward the engaged viewer.
Born in Australia in 1977 and naturalized as an American when he was seven years old, Evans is a 2002 graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). He also participated in the SMFA's competitive Fifth-Year Program and is now a member of the faculty at the school. Evans specializes in video installations, drawing images from popular culture and the Internet.
"Empyrean" relies on five panels and shows the artist's use of multiple channel installations flashing several simultaneous and chamging images.
The opening frame of "Empyrean" is of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie riding on a camel. A U.N. flag flaps behind Jolie. At first everything seems to be happy and carefree, as even the background music is light. Something, however, seems to be disjointed. Possibly it is the Vegas-style billboard in the center screaming "SAHARA," or maybe the skull Pitt clutches in his fist, or perhaps the planes nose-diving in the background. The juxtaposition of these images is jarring and as the video progresses, the confusion of images only increases.
A few seconds later, the video has morphed into a picture of numerous white apartment buildings cluttering a mountain, reminiscent of Tokyo or another busy metropolis. On a different panel, videos of plane crashes and machine gunners play. Familiar Shell Oil icons are littered throughout the video and a crucifix stands in the middle of the apartment buildings. The sound playing now is not music, but instead that of cars, busy cities and machine guns.
The effect is a clear critique of overpopulation and the quest for oil driven by the rise in population. The simultaneous positioning of the crucifix and the sounds of machine guns is ironic yet poignant, reflecting the contradictions between American politics and religious values.
"Empyrean" relies heavily on iconography, symbols and their connotations. As the video progresses, Evans explores topics from plastic surgery to papal power to homosexuality to capitalism.
The video continuously bombards the viewer with images, which are projected in bright, even jarring, colors. Viewers quickly feel overwhelmed, not knowing where to focus their attention. To fully appreciate the enormous volume of images, the viewer must watch the video several times and the effect is exhausting. Evans crams much political and social critique into a couple of minutes, and the viewer leaves feeling enlightened but weary.
"Empyrean" is a lot to digest. Viewers must be willing to pay attention to detail and be prepared to think.
