Rita Evans’ sculptural sonic artworks and performances were an engaging insight into the bridges between physical art objects, kinetic performance and sound art. Concerned with invention, and the emergent sonic properties of new instruments, Evans’ pieces concerned themselves less with digitally processing or transforming source sound in a reduced listening capacity, but rather directly capturing the acoustic properties of material objects themselves.
The tactility of the sculptural creation of sound was exciting and inspiring. Interestingly, she referenced being inspired by the Sussex Trumpet in the arrangement of the dual players in 2021 performance ‘Tuning in a Vacuum’. As a native of Sussex, this was a piece of history that I was unaware of. The connection of modern art pieces to ancient instruments of the past through ritualist conceptual frameworks is a subject that intrigues me greatly. It’s a fascinating, amusing dichotomy.
What amused me was her apparent hesitancy for her work to be seen as science-fictional, so much that she mentioned it. Aurally and visually, I was distinctly reminded of ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’, and the look of her chosen performers and their attire resembled civilian clothes in Star Trek.
One quote struck me, and I’m paraphrasing, “empathy creates polyrhythms”, which I understood as a cogently-intentioned phrase in relation to the performers’ emotionally reactive playing with each other’s varying pieces, but comprised of the kind of hand-wringing, nonsense language carefully tuned to the sensibilities of the neoliberal arts institutional arena. A groaner. In the Q&A, she admirably talked about not revealing too much, or perhaps digging too deeply into artificially grafting meaning to her work out of demand for one. There are many facets of meaning, and many kinds of it, and a temptation exists to remove yourself from attributing intuition in a time of such penetrative examination of the artistic and political meanings of a creative action.
Bibliography:
Towner Eastbourne Commission: Tuning in a Vacuum – Foundation Foundation Emerging Artist Award (2022) Available at: https://ritaevans.com/portfolio/tuning-in-a-vacuum-towner-eastbourne/