Chris Evans, at Rabo Bank Rotterdam for Sculpure International Rotterdam 2014

Unveiling of new work by Chris Evans and mini symposium


"My methods are simple: conversations that are bombastic in their connotations of power and influence dissolve into mute objects, leftovers from these hidden negotiations." Chris Evans

The sculpture Portrait of a Recipient as a Door Handle, After a Drawing by an Anonymous Philanthropist Chris Evans is the result of a conversation Evans had with an anonymous philanthropist. The philanthropist made a drawing that symbolizes a figure who receives a donation after he / she has overcome the fear of abuse. The artist then translated this drawing into a plastic model, reproduced it and finally processed it in the form of a door handle. The figure directs the gaze outwards as well as inwards. The door handle is attached to the entrance door of the Rabobank at Blaak 333 in Rotterdam. The artwork is thus a standard for the possible installation of identical door handles on the entrance doors of other banks around the center boulevard in the future.

The entrance doors of banks can be seen as a boundary line between public and private interests. They embody the usually invisible flows of capital within a city. The figure of the philanthropist has a twofold relationship to these capital flows - on the one hand, he acquires capital, and on the other, he brings capital back into the public domain.

Portrait of a Recipient as a Door Handle,… is part of a series of works by Chris Evans that arose from conversations with people from various walks of life. Each interlocutor is chosen on the basis of his public function or symbolic role, for example the directors of a renowned champagne house, a former member of the British Constructivists, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in Texas, a Maastricht police officer and, in the case of work on behalf of SIR, a philanthropist. These conversations result in sculptures, letters, drawings and film scripts. Evans deliberately deviates from the conditions under which a work is usually produced in order to undermine some of the traditional foundations of artistic expression such as authorship, intentionality, and originality.

Chris Evans (Eastrington, England, 1967) lives and works in London.

Monday 3 February 2014 (19.00 - 21.00 hour)
Tirdad Zolghadr Location: Auditorium, Witte de With. WdW Review (wdwreview.org) is Witte de With Center for Contemporary Arts latest publication: an online platform focused on informing our ever-growing range in an era of constant reformations, whether aesthetic, geographic, economic, common, ecological, or even spiritually. A section of the platform is called 'Desks' and takes the form of a series of reports from a number of international editors, in Athens, Delhi / Calcutta, Cairo, Moscow, and the newest addition: Jerusalem, led by Tirdad Zolghadr. He takes the opportunity to present an upcoming series of contributions to WdW Review's Jerusalem editorial during his lecture in Witte de With's auditorium.

Program

16.00 walk-in Rabobank Rotterdam, Blaak 333
16.30 welcome Rabobank Rotterdam and Ella van Zanten (Artistic director Art Affairs Rabobank Netherlands), Dees Linders (head of SIR) and Chris Evans

17.00 presentation "Portrait of a Recipient as a Door Handle, ..."
17.30 walk to Witte de With
18.00 starts symposium
Location: Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam

Thanks to: Rabobank Rotterdam