Evol Final 150dpi

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EVOL


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EVOL


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CARSON CHAN Much of your work today is made indoors.

Like most street artists, did you begin outside?

EVOL I have always been obsessed with drawing. When Iwas 14, I started drawing a lot with charcoal. I hated cleaning

brushes, so once I found out about spray cans which areperfectly portioned, premixed, and portable I discovered that Icould paint anywhere outside. It was really about making imageswherever you wanted, without asking anyone, and anyone thatpassed by could see it. This was 1991, so I was 19 and still living inmy hometown, Heilbronn, in the southwestern part of Germany.The idea was very simple I was just walking around looking

for interesting architectural moments and finding them. I wouldjust draw whatever came to my mind. After a short time, I gotto know the graffiti scene in Heilbronn, which was very small.Though we all shared an interest in painting outdoors, I never feltat home with graff writers though everything Ive done sincethen has developed from graffiti. I never liked hip-hop all thatmuch, which is a big part of graffiti culture. I listened to metal orhardcore, lots of Slayer.

When did being an artist become part of your identity? In other

words, when did you start calling yourself Evol?

By accident. In graffti there are hip-hop jams where people cometogether to write. I was invited to one of those jams in Heilbronn,and when I was asked what my name was I just made somethingup. I was wearing Evol brand skater shoes then, and of course Iknew the Sonic Youth album of the same name.

So it had nothing to do with spelling love backwards.

I mean, thats why Sonic Youth called their album EVOL.

I was hoping it was some kind of tradition relating to Blek Le Rat,

who pioneered the use of stencil in street art in many ways, and

who called himself Rat partially because its an anagram of art.

No but still, having one word that means the opposite readforward and backward is interesting to me.

As a graffiti writer, I got paid to do some commercial jobs, but by1996 or 1997 it got a little boring. At this point I started my formalstudies in product design, which was sort of a basic educationin aesthetics, rules and learning new techniques. I spent a lotof time in my studio, and in this new environment, I started to

rethink what could be done inside. Stencils seemed like a good

option because you dont have to mix colors, and complex effectscan be developed from your computer to your printer in a coupleof hours. I really love the surface and the appearance of flatcolors in stenciling. It has the look of something printed some-thing that looks simultaneously manmade and machine-made.

After my studies, I worked in a product design firm in Stuttgart.

In fact, I worked as a freelance product designer until 2008. I de-signed everything from writing instruments to vacuum cleaners,

whatever was asked of me. I enjoyed the switch between doingstreet art and then next week having a job in a real business. Thisreally gave me a way to think about each project from differentangles. In 2000, after a year in Stuttgart I had to move to Berlin;the prospect of being stuck in Stuttgart for the rest of my lifewas too present. I had a job there life was a little too nice. So

I moved to Berlin and had nothing, but I just wanted to be here,going back to Stuttgart only for specific projects. In Berlin, I reallystarted cutting stencils and experimenting with the technique.

My aim has always been to reflect what was going on around methrough images. The work with buildings, like the PLATTENBAUTEN

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN EVOL AND CARSON CHAN

February 2009


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project (2004 onwards), deal with the idea of doing somethingwithout having ones name attached to it. PLATTENBAUTEN,

buildings with bland, featureless prefabricated slab faades

you find everywhere in Berlin are great because they too areanonymous yet they have so much character. Ive always lovedwalking around the city, looking for architectural moments thatspoke to me. The surface of the city is something on which Ican communicate both to a small circle of street artists, and tosociety in general. I always noticed these grey electrical boxes asI walked around Berlin, and I just had an impulse to do some-

thing with them. I also like that theyre usually pretty dirty, thatthey accumulate color and texture simply from sitting outside.

The same goes for the cardboard pieces. The cardboard I use isall found material. It has markings from use and neglect: bitsof tape, writing, scratches, signage. These accidental markingssignify experiences that have little to do with the cardboard boxsintended use.

Pieces like MOSTRO/INVASION (2003) andADIDAS SECURITY FORCE

(2004) were stenciled directly on packaging material and were

made when you were much more involved in product design. In

MOSTRO/INVASION, a Puma sneaker shaped tank sitting in Alexan-derplatz was stenciled onto a disassembled shoebox. With these

works, youve constructed a matrix of war, commercialism and

public space.

During that period, a sneaker shop in Berlin asked me to paintsomething for them. In my research, I found out about sneakernerds, people who spend their time hunting for limited editionsneakers. I found this really bizarre. Collaborating with a brand

that promoted a senseless kind of consumption was an opportu-nity to critique a perverse sort of blind imperialism.

Can you speak more specifically about the political ambitions in

your work? Im interested in yourSWASTIKEA project (2005), whe-

re the image of an Ikea style table arranged to form a Swastika is

stenciled on various wood veneers. Within your practice, it repre-

sents a conflation of your background in product design and your

practice of communicating socio-political ideas through imagery.

Its not that Im a classical left-winger, its more that I try to walk

around with open eyes. Any random flat is filled with products

from Ikea. Most people, especially in the West, long to beindividuals, yet they purchase this individualism from the same

company. They unwittingly reproduce a totalitarian ethic. I dont

have ambitions to express political opinions, but my work doesdeal with political ideas. Im not trying to draw a line between theThird Reich and consumer culture which is difficult and proble-matic. This was a caricature of an idea.

During that time were you working as Evol, or more anonymously?

I get artistically schizophrenic sometimes. I wouldnt paint trainsor tag under Evol. Evol is more of a legal identity I take. Eventhe PLATTENBAUTEN project, authored under Evol, was sprayedon transparent paper so these the electrical boxes were never

permanently marked. You start developing several identities.When I tag, Im someone else. When I work as a product designer,I work under my birth name.

Lets talk about the question of identity. For someone who

works in multiple fields and on multiple levels of legality you

must work around this constantly. Street artists are often known

by pseudonym, which is never associated with a legal citizen.

Theyre detached from a greater system of governance. Showing

within a gallery, as opposed to in the public sphere, brings withit a different set of implications for the artists identity. Outdoor,

urban pieces address viewers, any random passerby, as part of a

PLATTENBAUTEN, Le Mur Paris, spray paint on poster paper, Summer 2008


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LICHTENRADER 32 (Detail), spray paint on cardboard, 2008


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general public. Whereas pieces exhibited in a gallery address a

specific audience that includes art critics, curators, gallerists, and

collectors. Pieces done outdoors can be gone in a matter of days,

while pieces exhibited in galleries are available for extended pe-riods of contemplation. Gallery pieces are subject to an institutio-

nalized form of viewing and criticism that implicates the artist as

liable for the reception of his work. How has this shift in audience

affected your process?

My practice, which included product design, tagging, as well as

art has always required me to negotiate between systems. Withinthe street art community there is a notion that street art should

be on the street which is basically true. I dont necessarily seemyself as a street artist as much as simply an artist who doesthings for the street as much as I do things for the gallery. Im adifferent artist depending on where Im working.

So this goes back to the artistic schizophrenia. Do you still do

work outside?

Its very important for me but it has become a time issue. I feel

like something is missing after not having painted outside for awhile. As I said, when youre on the street, you feel the pulse ofsociety, and thats where my topics come from. So its about see-ing how people behave around each other. The streets are wheremy ideas come from.

When you first moved to Berlin did you live in a PLATTENBAU?

You want to know how the PLATTENBAUTEN project came about

In fact I was so broke at that time because the product designfirm I was working for in Stuttgart was on the verge of closingand they couldnt afford to keep paying me. I was so broke thatI had to go to the job center. The closest one to where I lived

was in the former East Berlin suburb of Lichtenberg, and the jobcenter was in a depressingly ugly PLATTENBAU. I was so adamantabout not going back to this ugly building that I became muchmore resourceful in terms of finding work!

But the care you used to make these sculptures celebrate thePLATTENBAUS architecture rather than dismissing it. You cons-

ciously preserve their grimy surfaces and render the endless,

obsessive repetition with finely detailed windows. They seem

to propagate a memory of a Berlin from right after the wall fell,

when buildings all over were still unrestored, when pockmarks

from bullet holes and other marks of neglect reflected a richhistory and a unique context. MOSTRO/INVATION, which you made

six years ago, relates to Berlin as a historical site the modular

faade of the GDR-era KAUFHAUS pictured in your piece is now

removed. To remember it and to depict it within a critique of

commercialism is to take a stance on the visual environment and

its participation within abstract systems like the economy.

I wanted to make a harsh, brutal image of time that is easy to

understand. When Germany was reunited, they wanted to remakeand control its public image in order to attract tourists. Tearingdown the PALAST DER REPUBLIK, the former East German seat ofgovernment, to rebuild the Kaisers palace is part of this samementality. Its so stupid to create a kitsch version of the past. Itsan example of how the politics practiced here is about visualizing

outdated sentiments in the urban sphere. So youre right, I dohave a strong desire to remind of and to celebrate Berlins urbanhistory.

How are you conscious of the different audiences you engage

with on the street and in the gallery?

When you do stuff on the street, you dont know your audience.

You know they are there, but you just have to stand on the streetand see how people react to it. Sometimes they rip things down,sometimes they repaste them. I dont make art for a specific au-dience. Whether its legal or illegal, it makes very little difference

as to why Im making art. Im doing it for myself, but also in orderto show it.

What drew you to only focus on architecture, specifically the

architecture of Berlin?

I like that history is visible on buildings here. Its far more inte-resting when there are stains and remnants of posters. Paintingwindows on found cardboard and scrap metal creates a similar ef-

fect. My work is often a reflection of the area in Berlin where Ivelived for the past eight years. When I first came, everything was

grey and brown and you could even see bullet holes from the war.


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Now, everything is cheaply painted over with yellow paint. Imvery conscious of marks on public surfaces. Writers and graffitiguys make obvious, explicit markings, but less obvious ones likeold signs are also part of urban communication. I can tell whosbeen there, who lives there. Clean surfaces dont speak to me, sorecording these marks is a process of visually remembering thecharm of a place that will soon be painted over.

The markings on the found cardboard change scale the moment

you stencil a certain size window next to them. Bits of old tape,

wrinkles, creases, and barcodes all transform into architectural

elements. The texts on the carton, handle with care or fragile

suddenly become urban commentary when you paint a faade on

the same surface. Also, the fact that the cardboard is found rather

than bought suggests a commentary about our culture of dispo-

sal. Like what you said about the PALAST DER REPUBLIK, commu-

nity, or common history, can easily be disposed of because it canjust as easily be purchased. In the PLATTENBAUTEN project, and

subsequently in the famous installation you made at the Flamingo

Beach Lotel (2007), the scale of the perception shifted urban to

personal. In the cardboard works, it seems to be the opposite.

When a radio interviewer saw the PLATTENBAUTEN at an art fair,she described things about the pieces that didnt really exist,

like flowers in the windowsills but they were things she saw

because the piece was able to evoke her actual memory of thesebuildings, populated with people and their daily trappings. Imcontinually fascinated by how these found markings on either

electrical boxes or cardboard can become something else throughminiaturization.

They act as a point of convergence for several contemporaneousbut distinct spheres in our everyday life. Suddenly the visual logic

of global shipping (ie. barcodes, fragile warnings) is confla-

ted with those of our daily living. That which was distant and

abstract all of a sudden becomes personal and intimate. When

you miniaturize buildings, you immediately objectify our habits of

viewing the built environment we see ourselves seeing.

Your background in product design, where you had to be cons-

cious of what consumers wanted to buy, sits well with your useof packaging material like cardboard, but it was great to see this

dimension of your practice appear in the tagging project called

ADVERTISING SPACE 4 RENT(2006).

This project came from thinking about the double standards inpublic space how graffiti is banned yet billboards and advertise-ment are allowed to proliferate. Theres so much visual pollution.Thats why I thought to paint Ad space available for rent on

random pieces of trash.

Its seems impossible to compete with advertisement as visual

information in the urban environment.

At the same time, graffiti is also like advertisement. Most graffitiguys are only interested in throwing their name on walls gettinga name up to become recognized by the public, though develo-

ping a very personal visual language, of course.

Artist and writer Cedar Lewisohn wrote in his seminal book on

Street Art for the TATE Modern show in 2008 with the same name

that tagging is essentially branding. Its the dispersal of a visual

form without any content.

Thats half true. There is content, but its only readable to a veryelite scene, so yes, to the general passerby its content-less.

Im interested in repetition in your practice. Stenciling is a techni-que, like photography, that inherently suggests the possibility for

an image to be repeated infinitely.

ALLES WIRD GUT, spray paint on electric utility cabinet, 2008


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ADVERTISEMENT SPACE 4 RENT, spray paint on found wood, 2006


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A tag becomes meaningful when it becomes ubiquitous. I remem-ber being struck by the endless windows of the building in Berlin

that formerly housed the inner state police. There was a pretty

direct relationship between seeing the modularity of windowsand understanding the modular nature of stencils. I have beenusing the same two stencils to make windows since 2004.

Not only is street art seen as an outsider art form within main-

stream contemporary art, but some of your work even appears

to be outsider street art meaning your practice seems to exist

in a position separate from the traditions of the street art scene

proper. I say this because in some of your depictions of urban

spaces, we can see graffiti tags on your buildings. Making astencil of a tag is a really bizarre concept to unpack within the

traditions of street art. Like making a painting of an etching, or a

tapestry of a photo, with this particular action of stenciling a tag

you raise a lot of self-reflexive issues concerning the discipline

and institution in which you operate. Stenciling a tag is not

simply a combination of techniques but I see it as evidence of a

meta-critique; a consciousness of your position that reveals itself

through re-representing its image.

I dont make art while reflecting on how I, as an artist, will beseen. I dont know whether I consciously take this distance fromthe traditions of street art.

But your work seems to be reflecting on street culture, while still

operating within it. Most street artists are not reflecting ON the

scene, they are simplyIN the scene. Youre making work that is

about the work.

I think that many street artists are just pushing their names ad-vertising. Tags are icons that are repeated over and over again.Thats as boring for me as advertising from big companies. I like

to see people playing around in, and with public space. I wantto understand how people are aware of the space in which theywork. Im interested in adding to and creating something wherethe result is more than the sum of its parts. Through subtle inter-ventions, it is possible to change the meaning of a space. I enjoy

that and I enjoy the awareness of that. Walking around the citythen becomes an exercise in noticing these different moments

in the urban environment. Anything that catches your attention,

really. An image painted on windows that appear half hiddenbecause the window is opened, for example, is enough to make

me take a second look. The nicest stories from the street happen

by accident.

By taking on the role of an observer in both the street and

gallery art worlds, by being distant from the disciplines in which

you operate, do you run the risk of being neutral? In a way, the

dirty part of street art is missing in much of your work. Part

of whats nice about experiencing street art on the street is the

knowledge that someone secretly made the piece with the risk

of being punished for it. The adrenaline of operating outside the

rules of society, within society, gives street art its power.

You cant bring this energy into stenciling. Stenciling is such aslow process especially when you have twenty layers of coloron top of each other. Its not spontaneous in the same way, but itstill works with an understanding of how accidents can affect the

outcome. I dont need this energy in my stenciling in any case, Istill go out tagging. And if you want to see street art, you shouldgo on the streets.

How much do you associate your own work with the traditions of

street art in general? You mentioned that you painted on trains

is this a reference to the origins of street art in 1970s New York?

Ive always found it strange that street artists today want to belike those guys in New York twenty years ago. Im here in Berlin! Iwas born in West Germany. I find no need to act like a New Yorkerfrom twenty years ago. My work follows from my personal back-

ground. Im aware of what is happening in the street art scene,but Im not necessarily looking for my own personal role within it.One of my favorite artists is Martin Kippenberger. Humor is veryimportant for me youre lost without it.

Carson Chan is an architecture writer and curator. He graduated

from Harvard University in with a masters degree in the theoryand history of architecture. In 2006, he co-founded PROGRAM,

a Berlin-based initiative for art and architecture collaborations.


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WORKS

PLATTENBAUTEN, spray paint on disused electric cabinet, 2004


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GREEN ESTIVAL, 2003spray paint on cardboard, 35 x 40 cm

ARMED ESTIVAL ORANGE, 2004

spray paint on cardboard, 30 x 65 cm

MOSTRO/INVASION, 2003



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ADIDAS SECURITY FORCES, 2004



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BAD NEWS, 2005

spray paint on MDF and cardboard, 50 x 100 cm

BLINGBLINGS (DETAIL), 2006



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BLOCKS/GRENADE, 2005

spray paint on found wood , 98 x 58 cm

KOTTI:REVISITED, 2005

spray paint on MDF, 80 x 160 cm


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ABOUT TO BE YELLOW, 2008



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HANDLE W/ CARE (LEHMBRUCK 9-11), 2006


RUDOLFSTRASSE, 2006



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WALL FLOWER, 2009

DETAIL



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SIMPLON ECKE NIEMANN, 2007



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DIEFFENBACHSTRASSE BACKYARD, 2008



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2 BR APT EN SUITE IN EXQ. LOCATION, 2008



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BEI LIDL. BOXHAGENER STR., 2009



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HAND TO MOUTH, 2009


OBERBAUM, 2009



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THE FLAMINGO BEACH LOTEL PROJECT

spray paint and mixed media, dimensions variable, 2007

In 2007 EVOL was approached to create the lobbyfor the Flamingo Beach Lotel. The hotel wasbased in the Berlin suburb of Neuklln, which is a

multi cultural area containing one of Berlins mostauthentic but poorest neighborhood. Guests of thehotel, which in fact was a legalized squat, wouldpay a nominal fee for the rooms and in return wereable to experience the possibility of spending a

night inside a video installation, a deserted island,an all encompassing chessboard or to sleep in thecolor White.

EVOLs signature style architectural commentariestook on a complete different level with this projectwhere the artist had to approach a three-dimensi-onal space that was both an installation, but also a

functional transitory space. The result was the workon the following pages.

The hotel closed in the summer of 2008 and theinstallation was dismantled and dispersed. The

work is being recreated as a freestanding installa-tion on the occasion of EVOLs one-man-show at

WILDE Gallery.


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THE FLAMINGO BEACH LOTEL PROJECT (DETAILS), 2007

spray paint and mixed media, dimensions variable


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born in Germanylives and works in Berlin, Germany

EDUCATION

2001 Degree in product design, HFG Schwbisch Gmnd,Germany

2000 Kuopio Acadamy of Arts and Crafts, Finland

LITERATURE

BEYOND ARCHITECTURE, R. Klanten, L. Feireiss,Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2009

A/REACT, Artwork by EVOL & PISA73 from CTINK,DRAGO Publishers, 2007

STREET ART, DIE STADT ALS SPIELPLATZ, Daniela Krause/Christi-an Heinecke, Archiv der Jugendkulturen Verlag, Berlin, 2006

THE ART OF REBELLION 2, World of urban activism.

Publikat, 2006

SELECTED SHOWS

2009 WILDE Gallery (soloshow)2008 Ctink, with pisa73, Galerie Itinerrance, Paris,

France2008 Walden im U.F.O., Projekthaus Hamburg, Galerie

Walden, Berlin, Germany2008 Allstars, Bongout Showroom, Berlin, Germany2007 Ctink, with pisa73, Basementizid, Heilbronn,

Germany2006 Absolute Search, with mark jenkins, thundercut,

influenza, niels post and other artists,

Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, Netherlands2006 From where I stand, with pisa73, onno poeisz,

karski, connor harrington, mark mccoullough, Arttrail,

Cork, Ireland2005 the city made us do this, with 56k, Aem, Bild, Boxi,M-City, and others, Dialekt, Stuttgart, Germany

2005 A world of influence, with pisa73, lesley reppeteaux,nick walker, logan hicks, Urbis Artrium Gallery San

Francisco, USA2005 Ctink, with pisa73, Supalifekiosk, Berlin, Germany2004 Urban act 1, with pisa73, pax paloscia, logan hicks,

mackplakt, ephameron, give em hell, Studio14, Rome,

Italy2004 Ek streetart battle, with senor b, spair, 56k, gould,influenza, erosie, fruhstuck, oles, bfree and otherartists, De Punct, Tilburg, Netherlands

2004 Urban art factory, with pisa73, undenk, btfsf,layer1:1, Berliner Kunstsalon, Berlin, Germany

2004 Sneakers, with pisa73, dave white, tom langlands,the london police, bill mcmullen and other artists, CBK,Rotterdam, Netherlands

2004 Urban Acts with pisa73, pax paloscia, urban me-dium, thomas schostok, anthony skirvin, fremantle,

Studio14, Rome, Italy

EVOL


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This catalogue was

published on the occasion of

the exhibition

EVOL

May 1st May 30th, 2009

WILDE GALLERY

Chaussesstr. 7

10115 Berlin

www.wilde-gallery.com

the artist, the publisher

and aforementioned copyright

holders, Berlin 2009copy editor: Kari Rittenbach

COVER

YESTERDAYS NOT TODAY,

spraypaint on cardboard, 2008


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