Taking a walk through fashion itself, a ripple of influence can be seen from the Artist Cerith Wyn Evans, who has permanent artwork on show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Like waves made by a large piece of silk in the wind, Cerith is just as quiet and meaningful, leaving the majority of his artworks untitled for viewers to make sense of installed realities for themselves.
Taking a step back in time, beyond the work of his permanent exhibition at the Fondation, just to last year, Cerith was in collaboration with Louis Vuitton and installed a walk-through reality in a Tokyo Gallery that was titled ‘Espace.’ Installing light, sound and objects to create a Louis Vuitton think-space where viewers could wander and wonder...
Rewind even further back to the year 2011, and artist Cerith Wyn Evans himself was the model in an Marc Jacobs ad-campaign. Welsh, and born in 1958, the aging artist was featured partially naked. Showing his bare-derrier and going bare-legged in a pair of Marc Jacobs boots. At times, beyond art, he and his artworks have both bravely become fashion.
He spent the 2010’s and 2020’s across France, Japan, Wales, Aspen, the US, Italy, Mexico, England, Austria, Norway, Scotland to name a few. He also participated in overseas exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (2017, 2010 and 2003,) Skultpr Projeckte Munster (2017) Aichi Triennale (2010,) Yokohama Triennale (2008,) and Istanbul Biennale (2005.)
Today, for his first major solo-exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region, he is being featured as the major winter exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
The exhibition
In addition to other artworks that have been seen and visited across the world, Evans has created several site-specific works just for the Australian exhibition, that are about engaging with the light, soundscapes and natural environment of Warrane (Sydney Harbour.)
There is the Neon Forms (After Noh) series, large-scale three-dimensional ‘drawings in space,’ which invisibly dangle from the ceiling. Using neon light, this work in particular was inspired by the choreography of traditional Japanese Noh Theatre, this series traces the movements of performers as gestures suspended in space. Energetic and fluid, the works engage and transform the viewer's perception.
Double-Height exhibition galleries at the museum are being used to showcase the monumental light sculptures of the exhibition. Two works include the Sydney Drift (2025) and F-O-U-N-T-A-I-N (2020,) Then, there is the award-winning sculpture composition for 27 flutes, in which 27 glass pipes ‘inhale’ and breathe sound across the gallery.
Welcome to Cerith Wyn Evans
As an artist, Cerith creates surroundings composed of light, sound and communication. To give you an idea; He once created an art installation that consisted of an World War II searchlight sending 7 mile beam of light into the night sky over the Giudecca (an Italian island,) flashing intermittently in morse code, an ancient Welsh text.
In this exhibitions case, the sounds of bustling Sydney Harbour and sunlight from outside the Australian Museum of Contemporary Art are considered a part of the specially created completed artworks too.
Whether you adore Louis Vuitton or believe that fashion is a waste of time and space; In Light of the Visible by Cerith Wyn Evans is the perfect exhibition to make sense of reality and come up with possibilities. There is much to be said, but it is better to go and see.
