Image showing work in progress in the Masterhouse studio. Photo Yvonne Tenschert, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
Download List of Exhibitions, Performances, Workshops and Residencies here
My sculptures, performances, workshops, drawings and films explore notions of presence, momentum and becoming. Chance and intuition remain intrinsic to my process which involves feedback methods of composing and improvising, to develop spaces of multiplicity, collectivity and communality. The sculptures become both actors and mediators of touch and movement, exploring a deep materiality of sound that responds to the people and location they are created for – whether imaginary, site-specific or a combination of both.
‘Instrument’, the work Rita Evans developed for Haus Gropius, creates a connection between the body of an individual and the space of other bodies, a collective of people that includes the sculpture and its materials. A film shows documentation of previous workshops in which the instrument was played by individuals. In combination with the drawings, plans and spatial scores created in this context, visitors can experience the exhibition space as a sensual infrastructure.” Dr Florian Strob, Director Bauhaus Foundation Residency 2019-2022
Recently, I was commissioned by Towner Gallery (Eastbourne, Sussex), where I created ‘Tuning in a Vacuum’ (2022), a 40 minute live performance of seven sound-based sculptures, where materials, space and sound were played out in a politics of negotiation with performers. Supported by The Foundation Foundation Emerging Artist Award.
“Rita is innovative and dynamic. Amongst artists we work with on the Learning programme Rita brings a new field for us to work in: making and thinking about sound. She has a unique and inspiring approach to weaving collaborative practice into her personal studio practice. Rita’s practice is innovative, informing and inspiring to the sector -both in terms of galleries/exhibitions as well as engagement/learning. These collaborative frameworks are very much the way we see art making developing in the future. It’s great to have worked with someone who is developing work ahead of the field.” Esther Collins, Head of Learning, Towner Gallery, 2021.
Rita Evans is a British-Canadian artist based in London. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including: The Drawing Room; Camden Arts Centre; Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada; Archway Sound Symposium, Five Years Gallery, London; Towner International Biennial; Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Germany; Gropius House; Tate St Ives; Towner Eastbourne supported by The Foundation Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Awards include the Stephen Cripps’ Studio Award; Acme Residency & Awards Programme with The Royal Opera House; Henry Moore Foundation; Stephen Cripps’ family.
“There’s always a central connecting thing, whether that’s an object or the jelly-like surface you have in these drawings – there’s something that can be gathered around and then transformed by the presence of other people. I really love how in these (drawings), while you don’t have a physical breath, or physical bodies present because it’s a work on paper, that sense of gathering remains, even if it’s in the realm of a potential gathering, a potential togetherness. I find that really moving and really hopeful. I think we’re all trying to envision other possible ways of existence that we didn’t have to before and it’s almost like this is a strategy for that, which I really appreciate being able to see… “. From a conversation in 2020 with Amy Lay-Pettifer, for Aleph Contemporary.
“Artist Rita Evans has been working at Haus Muche since September, experimenting with materials and forms and exploring what sound they produce when played and moved by a group or audience from the public. She will be in contact with the people of Dessau to discover new ways of playing her sculptures.
Works of art and artistic work processes create specific new approaches to the world and in this sense are fictional: the term is derived from the Latin verb “fingere” and means nothing other than “to shape, form, imagine.” Thus, fiction does not primarily entail the creation of a world of one’s own, but can just as well mean the shaping of the existing world, the real. Fiction is thus also a way to gain distance, to question realities, to see them anew.
In their work, artists also explore how meaning and value are constituted in a specific present. What is told, why and how? And what differences, points of friction, and overlaps arise when fictions are dedicated to the same theme but realized by different artists with different means?“ Dr Florian Strob, Director Bauhaus Foundation Residency 2019-2022
“Do you consider the objects/instruments as temporary in the mediations of collaboration and togetherness? Or are they able to transcend into further sonic embodied experiences beyond the immediate interactions?” A question posed to me during a workshop I devised for the Royal College of Art MA Contemporary Curating course.
“What first struck me about Rita’s work was its fearlessness about using wide-ranging technologies, combining the sophisticated with improvisatory and spontaneous practice. Her drawings showed a real similarity to the freedom, quirkiness, humour and enquiry intrinsic to Stephen Cripps’ sketches.” Anne Bean, Artist, Stephen Cripps’ Studio Award panel, 2015
“Rita stood out as an artist who was very motivated and spoke and illustrated a number of projects that were often ‘off the beaten track’. She already seemed to be wholeheartedly committed, with a number of engaging ideas, for projects that were well-orchestrated in her mind for Thurrock, the local environment and those who live and work there.” Ron Haselden, Artist, Stephen Cripps’ Studio Award panel, 2015
