Chris Evans

The critic and art historian Michael Baxandall once wrote that an artwork 'is the deposit of a social relationship'.

Galerie Juliètte Jongma is pleased to present 'The Rock and The Judge', the first solo exhibition in The Netherlands of the Scottish artist Chris Evans (Easterington, 1967), curated by Maxine Kopsa. There's a lot to be remembered here. There's the police force, a judge, the rock, an airbrush, the fraternity and a sculpture park based on Raymond Roussel's Locus Solus. But it all comes together, quite neatly. 'The Rock & The Judge' is like a surreal encounter with a CEO-come-artist-turned-alternative-rock star and a perfectly angelic though somehow demonic muse, like the rabbit in Donnie Darko, who, late at night, too many drinks and too many hours at a random party, all of a sudden find themselves speaking the same language. Who then wake up the next morning wondering if it was all just a dream.

'The Rock & The Judge' consist of three different works (airbrush paintings, lithographs and a sculpture) all connected through their common search for the depiction of power relations. Necessary irony entailed.

Evans' work pattern usually begins with a personal encounter and then develops into a visual re-working, conceptually formed along the way. For instance: years ago, at the academy he met (and immediately disliked -the feelings were mutual) a part time mature student, a police officer, interested in drawing. When the officer was out of the room for a minute, not being able to withhold his curiosity Evans quickly took a look in his sketchbook and saw portrait after portrait of different judges. 'The Rock & the Judge' the work which lends its title to the show, comprises a sculpture and a drawing commissioned by Evans (granted, slightly re-worked by Evans) by detective constable Richard Hill from the Yorkshire police force (not the same). The 'rock' -an autonomous object, a true sculpture- placed as though on trail in front justice's elevated bench, might depict -with enough wit- the win/lose situation involved in much aesthetic discourse and validation.

Three paintings done in airbrush -a technique few people could get away with without it becoming either tattoo-like or tastelessly 80s- are the beginning of a new project called The Fantasist. They portray imaginary outdoor sculptures and are loosely based on Raymond Roussel's surreal novel, Locus Solus (1916). The Fantasist is a self initiated touring exhibition and book of sculpture parks, comprising these and other works as well as commissioned texts by, amongst others, Lucy McKenzie, Liam Gillick, Will Bradley, and Paulina Olowska. The publication is due to come out in the summer of 2005.

Power. The subtle hierarchy that goes along within its precarious relationship, and the law and order prevailing that enables its successful continuance. That's in essence what is happening here. Or, as Will Bradley so aptly put it: 'Evans is deeply concerned with the impossibility of separating the artwork from the social and political conditions in which it exists, but unlike the politically motivated artists of the last generation he doesn't ask that art give up any of its connection with personal, poetic or imaginative investigation.'

The Rock & The Judge
Chris Evans