Cliff Evans treats images like found objects, mined from the vast reference library that is today’s Internet. His exhibition Empyrean is a digital polyptych with photomontage animation that recalls the form of 15th-century Northern European altar-pieces merged with contemporary advertising narratives.

Scene after scene of Evans’s five-channel projection has deliberate order and disquieting disorder, creating a loose but provocative narrative around the subjects of power and population control, coded with interesting and often humorous subtexts. Empyrean’s themes were developed through an absurd juxtaposition of both benign traditions and disturbing pathologies: wellness tourism, missionary practice, militaristic domination. Evans’s extensive investigation into his subjects is enhanced by a trained eye and impressive skill using image detail and color. The large swath of information and carefully calibrated soundtrack was presented in a loop shown at a slow and melodious pace. With each repeated viewing, viewers became more intrigued, less complacent, finding new associations and symbols, and questioning the final meaning of the narrative. The continuous loop is a fitting symbol of the circuitous navigation of the psyche that is at the heart of the Empyrean.

Cliff Evans was an Artist-in-Residence at the Gardner in 2006. He currently lives in New York and became a faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2008.

Learn more about the artist

Saturday Talk
November 10, 2007, 1:30pm
Cliff Evans and Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art

Evening Lecture
Thursday November 15, 2007, 7:00pm
Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art, Gardner Museum

Gallery Talks at Gardner After Hours
Third Thursdays, July 2009 – October 2009 @ 7pm
Mary Ellen Strom, artist and teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (November 29; George Fifield, Director, Boston Cyberarts Festival followed by Drazen Pantic, Founder, OpenNet (December 20).

Conversations
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media at Museum of Modern Art, New York.