Seamlessly combining scientific investigation, photography, and sculpture, artist Luke Evans experiments with physical processes and scale. For our January 2022 issue, he brought his dynamic eye to our edit of consoles.
Wallpaper*: Describe your style and process
Luke Evans: I have a pretty bipolar relationship with photography. I get frustrated with its simultaneous simplicity and endless complexity, and I think that comes across in my work. Sometimes I’ll use a camera, other times I won’t. There’s a mix of vivid colours and some [images] with none at all. Sharp against soft, simple beside complex, digital next to film, in the studio and on location. I used to think of this as a weakness, but to hell with that.
The variety and pure curiosity about image-making is the backbone of what keeps me excited. Saying that, there are some common threads throughout; the unique sense of scale that the lens can bring, the influence of the science, and physical printing processes.
W*: Tell us about how you brought your way of working to our story on consoles
LE: This shoot was such a tonic. Usually I spend 95 per cent of the creative time overthinking, yet here I was able to work instinctively, simply responding to the shapes and textures of the pieces. Several of the images were shot with the intention of using the negative as the final image. So where we added light, we were actually adding darkness, and vice-versa. The various approaches were unified by their layout, colour, and physical printing techniques.
Top: 'PA 1947' console desks, £3,980 each, by Ico Parisi, For Cassina. Above: 'D.8.47.1' console desk, price on request, by Gio Ponti, for Molteni & C, as featured in the January 2022 issue of Wallpaper*
W*: What do you think is the most interesting thing happening within photography now?
LE: How the role of CGI and photography exist beside and interact with one another.
W*: What’s on your radar?
LE: The website radio.garden, by Studio Puckey, Moniker, and the Transnational Radio Encounters project. Thousands of online radio stations are arranged geographically, letting you tune in to any local station (more or less) in the world. It’s incredible.
From the series Shockwave, by Luke Evans
W*: What’s next for you this year?
LE: I’m finishing up a five-year project about my experience with cancer, which will be out next year. It’s the most personal and important piece of work I’ve made to date, bringing together all my different approaches and will be both a book and exhibition.
From the series Second Nature
From upcoming series The Odds
INFORMATION
-
Architect Tsuyoshi Tane on the ‘archaeology of the future’A new show by architect Tsuyoshi Tane launches today at the TOTO concept gallery in London, exploring the ‘archaeology of the future’
-
‘The future is hypermobile’: portability guides Tom Dixon’s Coal office exhibitions
London Design Festival 2023: at Coal Office, Tom Dixon explores themes of hypermobility in collaboration with cutting-edge contemporary brands, mixing AI, tech and research
-
Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain: humour, desire, domesticity
‘Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas’ at Tate Britain spans the four decades the artist’s career
-
Felicia Honkasalo on creative obsessions, gothic horror, and the sci-fi world of AI photography
Explore the vision of Helsinki-based artist Felicia Honkasalo in ‘Through the lens’, our monthly series spotlighting photographers who are Wallpaper* contributors
-
Cyprien Gaillard on chaos, reorder and excavating a Paris in flux
We interviewed French artist Cyprien Gaillard ahead of his major two-part show, ‘Humpty \ Dumpty’ at Palais de Tokyo and Lafayette Anticipations (until 8 January 2023). Through abandoned clocks, love locks and asbestos, he dissects the human obsession with structural restoration
-
Year in review: top 10 art interviews of 2022, chosen by Wallpaper* arts editor Harriet Lloyd-Smith
Top 10 art interviews of 2022, as selected by Wallpaper* arts editor Harriet Lloyd-Smith, summing up another dramatic year in the art world
-
Yayoi Kusama on love, hope and the power of art
There’s still time to see Yayoi Kusama’s major retrospective at M+, Hong Kong (until 14 May). In our interview, the legendary Japanese artist vows to continue to ‘create art to leave the message of “love forever”’
-
Antony Gormley interview: ‘We’re at more than a tipping point. We’re in a moment of utter crisis’
We visit the London studio of British sculptor Antony Gormley ahead of his major new show ‘Body Field’ at Xavier Hufkens Brussels
-
Photographer Maisie Cousins on nostalgia, impulsive making and ‘collecting useless things’
Explore the vision of British artist Maisie Cousins in ‘Through the lens’, our monthly series spotlighting photographers who are Wallpaper* contributors
-
Rashid Johnson in Menorca: a journey through migration, longing and togetherness
We visited Rashid Johnson’s Brooklyn studio ahead of the artist’s show at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, which contemplates drift – physical and emotional
-
Step inside the kaleidoscopic universe of Pipilotti Rist
Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, who headlines Wallpaper’s November 2022 issue, has transformed the way we see, with a poetic yet playful practice spanning three decades. Here, and in a special portfolio, she reveals how she has liberated video art from its conventions, imbued the digital realm with emotion, animated public spaces, and harnessed the healing powers of colour
