Artist Interview with Evan Broens

 
White Form #01, 2012
Plaster

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting Evan Broens studio. Evan is an artist who creates sculptures and paper works. He received his Bachelors in Fine Art from the Alberta College of Art & Design in 2005. His introduction into visual art was through self-taught photography and discovered sculpture through his studies. Evan current lives and maintains his studio practice in Vancouver, Canada. In 2012, he will be participating as artist in residence at  DRAWinternational in France.

What is it that you're trying to achieve or explore through your sculpture and drawings?

The philosopher Mikel Dufrenne puts forth the idea that the work makes itself known to the artist only as a demand, not as idea that the artist can think; that the artist ushers this demand into reality and acts as the transitional hand that moves the unreal to the real. That being said, through my sculpture and drawing I try to achieve another understanding of the world through visual perception while pursuing the demand of the work to its realization.



White Form #02, 2012
Plaster


Untitled (732), 2011
Foam core

Tell us about the process of making your work.

The study of shapes constitutes the foundation of my making. The process of making my work is based on intuition that is carouselled by specific restrictions and negotiated in the minute threshold between gesture and material. I choose materials for their formal and aesthetic attributes, in addition to their workability and contention with gesture. The process is concentrated; a problem is initiated through one gesture, resolved in another, and created again with the resolving gesture until this discord ends. There is the material, there is my gesture, and there is the demand in the work. I also created and maintain a daily photographic blog - shape-visual - that I use for documenting visual information, and use as a tool to actively engage with the act of looking at objects outside of my own creation.

You mentioned that your previous work was more narrative whereas the work your are making now is not. You took a year off to transition. What prompted the change?

The past five years has seen a significant shift in my work and practice, mostly resulting from a hiatus from producing in 2008 and 2009. Looking back on those two years, I now see it as a time where I was resolving the neutrality I had developed towards my work, and began pursuing what was at the core of my attention. What prompted this change was a combination of this feeling and two significant individuals in my life. One of these individuals confronted me about my disinterest and told me to investigate what has always been prevalent in my work, that being shape. The other individual simply told me to stop thinking and concentrate on doing and making. It was this time that initiated and concretized specific and dedicated studio time.


Untitled (strata seies), 2012
Pen on paper


Left to Right: Constellation #1, Constellation #12, Constellation #4, 2011
paper, marker, graphite


Because you're drawings are typically methodical, tell me about what you're doing with these pieces of paper scattered all over the floor.

The scattered pieces on my studio floor in March, 2012 was an exercise to disrupt the structured methodology in my process of making. Because my typical methodology involves doing a limited number in a series, this exercise pushed beyond that limited quantity. I set up two rules, one line and one cut - this rule was to be done for every page of a card stock in a two hundred page stack. The other requirement for this exercise was to make a mess since my tendency is very clean and edited. A line was drawn, a cut was made, and tossed away to the floor. This exercise became unsettling and uncomfortable, and pushed my making out of preciousness and safety. I articulated lines never explored while being surrounded by untidiness. It’s not so much about getting outside of your comfort zone, but realizing what your comforts are and what getting outside them does.




For more info visit Evan's website here.

Evan also has a blog which is an extension of his visual practice here.