THE HOLLOW FRAMES
2019
Steel, screws, lacquer, wax, brass rods, pewter, plastic
96 x 69 x 25 cm
2019
Steel, chain, rubber, wax, marker pen, nuts, bolts, washers, screws
198 x 178 x 19 cm
2019
Steel, screws, lacquer, wax, resin, makeup palette
73 x 51 x 12 cm
2019
Steel, audio/visual equipment, wax, marker pen, bolts
Dimensions variable
2019
Steel, bolts, washers, Co2 cartridges, vanity mirror, fingerprints, rope, lacquer, wax
206 x 120 x 57 cm
2020
Steel, brass rods, makeup palette, pewter
68 x 51 x 22 cm
2016 - 2019
Mixed media
28 x 12 x 9 cm each, approx
The Hollow Frames is a collection of work that combines shapes, imagery and ideas from fairy tales, fairground sideshows, folk art, folk horror, historical ironwork and popular high street products that relate to the body. They reference these subjects with a Hauntological sense of the misremembered, incorporating a faded sense of the influence these subjects have had on popular culture. The works are expressions of an urge to re-connect with ancient craft practices: a way to summon or revisit the thoughts, visions and journeys the originators of such techniques may have taken. These long-dormant memories are brought into a contemporary narrative using discarded objects such as canisters of Nitrous Oxide (hippy crack), makeup palettes, nose rings, or a vanity mirror.
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The Hollow Sea
In The Hollow Sea, Evans combines the aesthetic of artisan steelwork, mainly German 16th-century decorative ironwork, with a magnetic makeup palette purchased from Westfield Shopping Centre in East London. The makeup has been removed and substituted with pewter, and electrolysed brass rods, often used as lighting conductors, allude to vertical architectural supports, pulling together the composition.
For many centuries’ windows were small and open to the elements; the word window is derived from the Norse word Vindauga meaning wind’s eye. In the 16th century, glass was introduced, and concurrently Iron grilles appeared both to protect the glass panes and as a security measure. Over time these grilles become very elaborate, eventually evolving into an entire genre, incorporating organic elements, faces, and monsters. The iconography found in these grilles seems to acknowledge and even apologise for the negative function inherent in their design. Significant uses were gates, chapel screens, well covers, skylight grating and shop signs. They were often found in churches as dividers separating parts of the congregation according to function and religious importance. In Hollow Sea and accompanying works, the metal takes the familiar form of a painting, but by alluding to the history of metalwork, the piece also addresses themes of architecture, power, the handmade and commerce.
The makeup palette sits in stark contrast to the metal, acting as a signifier of identity, gender and commerce. The circular forms resemble eyes, diagrams or colour palettes. The history of western makeup is typically traced back to ancient Egypt, likely because there are so many preserved artefacts from this period. Makeup clay pots were found even in the most humble of tombs. Both men and women in this period wore makeup. The Egyptians were interested in beauty, but makeup also served other functions such as warding off insects, sunscreen and honouring the gods. There was a social and medical function to these products. Coloured makeup was widespread throughout the Roman period; its use declined in the middle ages when makeup containing lead used to whiten the appearance came into fashion. For much of its early history, from the middle ages to the 19th-century, makeup often included dangerous substances such as lead and vinegar (similar to pewter), which could cause muscle paralysis and death. During this period, the combination of metal and beauty products often resulted in fatal consequences or long-term damage. A controversial study by historians has even attempted to map the development of mental illness to makeup over the centuries finding that the heavy use of makeup after 1500 seems to coincide with high levels of reported insanity.
In these steelworks, the pewter cosmetics contrast with the metal’s closed, barred, imprisoning function, suggesting an opening, an alchemic portal to visions and fantasies. In film and graphic design, a colour palette is used as a reference when designing the look of the film or scene. In photography, a colour chart is often introduced into the edges of a picture to measure colour balance. In Hollow Sea, the pewter palette has a dual activation. The palette in the structure takes the position of the main image in a painting. Thus, for the viewer, it has a dual function as it both conjures a subject matter of a portrait, the person that would use the makeup, the literal “painted figure”, while concurrently serving as an object of fantasy for the viewer associating the colour palette with transformation and buying into a fantasy lifestyle or version of the self, that is inherent to make-up.
The elevation and activation of the makeup palette questions our relationship to the legacy of the beauty industry. In fashion, each set of colours or a lack of colour is aimed at a different look, a different style, and a different fantasy. The Hollow Sea offers itself to us, inviting us to interact with a new story, but with unknown consequences.