The Sound of Art Introduces New Work by Cliff Evans! Only Five Prints Available!

by Paddy Johnson on September 30, 2010 Sound of Art

Cliff Evans, Empyrean, 2007, signed artist's multiple, edition of 200, 17.25 x 12.75 inches

The benefits of giving to The Sound of Art just keep getting better. Today we introduce Cliff Evans’ signed artist multiple, Empyrean, of which there are ONLY FIVE AVAILABLE. Donate at the $150 dollar level and this print will be yours. Proceeds will go to fund the production and launch part of The Sound of Art, a record filled with the sounds of videos, installations, and performances across the city.

Evans’ Empyrean has proven to be something of a press magnet, and rightly so. His ability to piece together loose creepy narratives through material culled from online rivals the sensibility of such Modern greats as Martha Rosler. This is a work worth owning, and of course, it goes to a great cause! A few words about the piece from the artist himself:

In the middle of some war-torn country, Brangelina rides a camel through the eye of the camera, presenting gifts of the ob-scene, totem, and petrified to the “excluded.”  The event is staged for the opening of Empyrean.  Empyrean is a wellness retreat built upon the happily resting bones of the dispossessed.  Reanimated, in stereotype, these refugees play the oppositional objects of progress.  Like spectral remainders, they mark the victor with a sense of guilt.  However, the victor has recourse in the edifying expanse of the market: where recruits and contractors; bubbas and aliens; and politicians and intellectuals are employed to build this heaven.  Beatrice looks like a Benjamin.

The print comes from 5-Channel HD video projection in 6:30 min. loop, the sound included on the album, stereo. A few words from the notables:

“Marrying the old-fashioned art of collage to the newfangled technology of computer animation, Cliff Evans has produced a gripping five-screen video projection resembling a psychedelic 'Last Judgment.'” Ken Johnson, The New York Times

“Empyrean presents us with an empire of decadence and destruction in which stereotypical desert landscapes, from Las Vegas to Palestine, are confused and conflated… Evans's simulacrum of life from a young American male's laptop-bound perspective is utterly contemporary but also, in its heightened color and ethical message, recalls Northern Renaissance paintings of the Last Judgement… In combining eccentric mystical and religious imagery with social criticism, Evans questions our superficial pleasures by mirroring them in a wildly entertaining style.” Francine Koslow Miller, ArtForum

“With the internet as his source, Evans animates both militaristic and commercial images to create dramatic moving photomontages that illicit reverence, fear, and humor. Placed within the context of the [Gardner] Museum, his ‘digital polyptych’ appears like a religious altarpiece, perfectly at home among Gardner’s diverse and evocative collection.” Caitlin Jones, Rhizome

This print is waiting for you. Donate now!

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