RAMSES EYES FRANKENSTEIN'S LAST BREATH
2013
Steel, plaster, snow machine, onions, dollar store objects, audio
213 x 487 x 549 cm
Collaboration with Brock Enright
2013
Steel, plaster, snow machine, onions, dollar store objects, audio
213 x 487 x 549 cm
Collaboration with Brock Enright
The myth of the science student being asked to power a radio by wiring together onions and the many youtube videos dedicated to proving the possibility of this impossible task led to this collaboration between Richard Nik Evans and Brock Enright.
By mounting onions on a steel structure with various dollar shop objects covered in snow and plaster, the artists found a way to investigate the aesthetic consequences of decay and the formal results of natural materials, pierced by disposable materials. The artists created a hellish circuit, an artificial network, hidden by a blizzard.
The title takes its name from Ramses II, reputedly the most ostentatious Pharo who, when buried, had his eyes replaced with onions and Frankenstein, the scientist who created a living creature by stitching together body parts taken from dead criminals.
A steel structure was built inside the gallery to allow for two types of improvisation. Objects and materials (thread, beads, washing up liquid, clamps, rubber tubes, string, pins and wire) were arranged in a participatory relationship to onions (pierced, crushed, sewn, hung and liquidised). A snow machine covered the work. The installation was then left and allowed to decay.
The work was designed to investigate sculptural limits, historical myths, theatrical tricks and narrative tropes and attempted to evoke tears in two ways: first with onions that induce tears through physical interaction and secondly through a fake snowstorm that intimates tears through sentimentality or romance.
The result was a grotto-like experience in which Santa’s elves, busy making cheap disposable toys, had left the room, and the mysterious onion machine had taken over. It was a battle between environment and commerce where nature, as it always does, wins.
