Richard Evans

Comprised of a sculpted hooded jumper connected to a hydroponics unit, Richard Evans’s Hoodie broaches abstraction with a multiplicity of cultural references. Using drug paraphernalia as a kind of plinth ― as a foundation for altered perspective, and as a source and receptacle for the endless cycle of dripping water that perspires from the sculpture ― Evans’s sweatshirt is bolstered as a totemic psychological portal. Hanging as a vacant shroud, Evans’s jacket invokes associations to both chav fashion and religious garb. Coated in wax, the draping suggestion of a figure is given a malleable tarry skin, through which embedded tubes emit sweat-like streams of water, creating an image of addiction, suffering, and catharsis. The faint sounds of ‘rain drops’ caused by the precipitatious cycle give the piece an air of contemplative sadness. Inspired by his Hackney neighbourhood, Richard Evans’s sculptures draw from the grittiness of urban culture. In Black Grape, Evans’s giant wave towers over the viewer with an air of monumental sadness. Made from silicone carbide, a material used for grinding rocks and cutting diamonds, Black Grape’s dark swell is a metaphor for existential crisis, desire and grief. Personifying his raw force of nature with fag butts and a beverage can, Evans renders a sense of powerlessness in the face of immense beauty and devastation. The palm tree on the drink logo mirrors the curvaceous composition of the wave; Black Grape is a brand of soda popular in the fringes of London society.