Untitled (Perfect Lovers + 1)
2008 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
Set of 3 pieces: 23.81 x 76.52 x 4.13 cm
Cerith Wyn Evans
Untitled (Perfect Lovers + 1) by Cerith Wyn Evans takes as its starting point Felix Gonzales-Torres’s seminal work Untitled (Perfect Lovers) , in which two clocks were synchronized and left to run without interference, the implication being that one would stop before the other. Gonzales-Torres’ original work was a personal allusion to his own partner’s increasingly debilitating HIV-related illness, which grapples with the existential tension of coexistence in the face of death. Cerith Wyn Evans’s piece takes the same concept, and adds a third clock, moving from the intimacy of a monogamous relationship to suggest a more expansive, or possibly polyamorous alternative. Untitled (Perfect Lovers + 1) transforms the tension in Gonzales-Torres’s work into something more ambiguous and unsteady. The three clocks turn outward to force the viewer’s implication into both Evans’s work, as well as its reference to Gonzales-Torres.
Welsh conceptual artist, sculptor, and filmmaker Cerith Wyn Evans’s work often deals with perception and systems of signification, seeking to rupture extant forms in favor of new, more imaginatively productive models. This can occur through textual interventions, the dismantling of space or temporality, and poly-vocal assemblages that seek multiplicity, opening outwards rather than closing into a singular understanding. His work revels in the unfixed nature of meanings and ideas, finding fluid potentialities and powerful metaphors for its audience to ponder.
