ALL MY HUMMINGBIRDS HAVE ALIBIS
installation views, Southfirst, New York
2011
2011
Plexiglass, steel, plasteline, guitar string, tuner, wax, nails, fingerprints, dust, thread
39 x 30 x 13 in
2011
Framed c-prints
16 x 56 in
2011
Framed c-prints
16 x 48 in
2010
Glass wax, guitar string, wire, headphones
27 x 20 x 1 in
The sound element; presented on headphones next to the sculpture consists of Kafka's diaries read aloud by automated text readers emulating accents from different parts of the world combined with re-imagined sound works by György Kurtág. The sculpture is a single guitar string dipped in glass wax.
The sound element from The Invention of the Devil.
2011
Steel, wood, plaster, triangle
65 x 14 x 7 in
2011
concrete, guitar strings, plexiglass, guitar tuners
24 x 19 x 1.5 in
2010
Resin, IBM UNIVAC reel to reel tape, wood
55 x 9.5 x 9.5 in
2010
Guitar string, alabaster, charcoal
11 x 6 x 6 in
2011
Rubber, steel, guitar strings, tuners
48 x 48 x 67 in
2012
Plexiglass, resin, yo-yo, steel
62 x 11 x 8.5 in
2011
Screen print, paint, steel, glass
43 x 25 in
All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis at Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, presented a series of maquettes, models and experiments that took composer Morton Subotnick’s sound work (the first on the outdated technology of the CD-Rom) as a starting point and turned it into a series of works that played with ideas of sound as object, improvisation, parameters, materiality and the influence of folk and African/tribal art on the development of sculpture, especially the work of Max Ernst. Morton Subotnick had himself been inspired to create the compositions by looking at Max Ernst collages.
All works started from a logical examination of materials and their limits. The materials included clay, resin, rubber, computer tape, steel, guitar strings, wax, glass, plasticine, wood, alabaster, plaster, paint and charcoal. Evans then used these conclusions to discuss sculptural interests such as interdependence, the body, structure, narrative, sound and technology. The way these materials connected with the themes was discovered through improvisation and play, similar to how the sound work was initially made.
Link to the music from Morton Subotnick’s CD-Rom, All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis.