Biog
‘…imagination in miniature is natural imagination which appears at all ages in the daydreams of born dreamers.’
Most people, especially in our current state of British and World politics, would call me an idealist. Having developed seemingly unattainable desires to save the world from a young age, instigated by an evangelical Christian upbringing, I have now harnessed and progressed my own values and beliefs and arrived at a more personally informed and comfortable integral view. This personal value system concerned with what we are and where we are going, lies at the heart of all I create.
My work is a product of the belief and observation that there is a need for greater awareness, visibility, responsibility and communion within our society. I aim for my art to create a strong visual language by simultaneously representing the power of community and that of the individual.
1000 miniature paper figures individually cut out and stuck perpendicular to the wall, plus a spot light make up my new artworks titled ‘Crowd’. Formations found in nature such as; spirals as established by Fibonacci, astrological patterns, schools of fish and birds in flight influence the shapes that the crowd adopt; to overlay and highlight our inherent connection with nature, that which sustains us.
It’s important to me as an artist for my work to be contemplative and explorative for the viewer. My newest work therefore takes on an interactive element where the light is now generated by a torch that allows the viewer to control the movement of the piece, to create their own live animation. The work is intended to empower an audience to think on grand scales and of the intrinsic energies pulsing through life that take us beyond the realms of individual and conventional thought.
My artwork is something I continue to pursue along with running music/art/poetry events in South London. During this past year after completing university I have found that my strength and joy lies in orchestrating events that give other artists a platform to perform and share their creativity and message with a public searching for value and quality inspiration. Building a community of likeminded artist’s intent on influencing culture in London is the most exciting thing I can imagine being involved in right now, so that is where I put my energy.
I hold the belief that the arts must find a new course to take and role to play within our society. The arts have a vital role in influencing the ideas of people. This needs to be acknowledged and used so that it can become a powerful medium in changing people’s lives, spreading love and making us aware of our own creativity and responsibility to ourselves and everything around us.
Interview
An interview about myself and my artwork conducted by Jessica Fleming.
1. Name: Danielle Evans
Age: 23
Location: London
2. What made you want to/inspired you to become an artist? And why?
I believe it was being encouraged from an early age to draw, paint and play etc. I found a lot of joy in creating, as we all do, and I guess my parents thought that artistic careers were as credible as any, so I was never discouraged. It became a strength in school and through college, so developing creativity in my life, whether it was art making or jewellery design, became important on many levels, for income, life skills, confidence, evolving in general and art has taken on a much grander meaning since experiencing art school and getting a bit older.
3. Why did you go to University instead of concentrating on your art as an artist from the beginning?
I took a year out before I felt really ready to go to uni, but I still felt I was in a place where I needed guidance, support and structure. I also knew a degree would push me to do things I wouldn’t necessarily do on my own such as essay writing and public speaking. Also being around fellow artists full-time where you all have a common intention to learn and create can really accelerate your own processes with art.
4. Who do you most admire and look up to as an artist?
There’s no one artist that I particularly admire, but to name a few; Marina Abramovic, Antony Gormley, Michal Rovner, Leonardo DaVinci, Kandinsky, Klee... I guess one thing that these artists have in common is the theme of transcendence, apart from that I have many individual reasons for my love of each one, for example; Marina Abramovic for pushing the boundaries of the individual, testing our capacities and transcending bodily limits. To me, she reveals to us our own power and our connection with everything around us.
5. What gallery would be your dream gallery to exhibit in?
I have never thought about this, because I have always dreamt of owning my own gallery and that would be my dream.
6. Where have you exhibited already?
I have exhibited at The University of Westminster, The Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston, Fovea Gallery in Harrow, Southlands Art Centre in West Drayton, and SpacePlace in Hackney Wick.
7. What kind of art would you say you created?
I use crowds, shadows and the miniature to communicate my belief in the interconnectedness and power of people. In the words of Gaston Bachelard, ‘Miniature is one of the refuges of greatness.’ Through the use of miniaturization, viewing large scenes on a small scale, I aim to stimulate the audience’s imagination to think on grand scales and of universal energies that take us beyond the realms of the individual and individual thought. I wish to impress on the viewer how crowds generate powerful energy through their strength in number and their assembly for a common purpose. This immaterial (metaphysical) energy is expressed in my work through the use of light and shadow.
8. What inspires you the most in creating the work you do? And why?
The idea and chance of maybe communicating with people; causing myself and audience of my work to become connected via the viewing of the artwork and the interpretation. The thought that one could inspire more wholeness in people through art or at least make them have some kind of reaction and opinion to art. I also like the never ending challenge of finding the best way to communicate an idea to someone, o say what you mean in the most effective and creative terms.
9. What genre of art do you most enjoy making, installation or painting/drawing?
You can’t really differentiate the two, because installation for myself and most artists can’t happen without drawing. Installation for me is a finished product, what I most want to present to the viewer, it is also a joy to set up. The formulating of an idea largely happens in drawing, and is integral to all I do from designing to recording.
10. What inspires you to create installation art work?
I rate installation above all artwork for my own practice because I find it whole, encapsulating, fantastical. Creating an environment for a viewer to step into is a complete experience for me. It keeps, I believe my artwork exciting, and keeps me excited and about offering people the opportunity to step into another reality for a moment in time. I t creates atmosphere and allows me to be very mixed media in my approach to art.
11. What do you most admire about installation art?
Its ability to transport people wherever their interpretations take them. It has the potential to engulf their senses, surround their beings, almost like being in a vivid dream.
12. What constitutes art to you?
Art to me is one word; Expression. Any way of expressing is art to me; maybe I should actually phrase it “expression with intention.” I believe the intention of creating art is important, for an artist at least, but in the very broadest terms, I would just call it expression, anyone’s expression.
13. What does art mean to you?
Art is so ingrained in my life as a practice and thought process that it means a great deal to me, it determines how I connect with myself and the world around me. It is powerful as is anything creative. Art, expression and creativity, for me, are interchangeable, and they are the most important tools we have to know ourselves and our surroundings with and of course to create and define ourselves and surroundings.
14. What inspired you to create your Ballerina work and why?
I had been playing around with small kinetic art objects at the time and was preparing something for a show. I got very sick a month before and couldn’t work on anything. I had a few experiments lying around and a close friend of mine, knowing I still wanted to exhibit, found my ballerina I had made out of dripping glue gun glue that I’d stuck to a cassette player and told me that it was perfect for the show just as it was. That is kind of the end of the story, but it is what inspired me to develop the idea afterwards into much larger pieces. My initial idea was quite unconscious and as most decent art ideas, far surpassed my intellectual comprehension for quite sometime. You can only say that it materialised at a time of experimentation that was no more special than any other day, and it took a friend to point out to me the importance of what I had done for my practice, I thought I was just having fun.
15. How did you make it and what from?
I made the ballerina from dripping glue from a glue gun in a slow and tedious manner and the cassette player came as it was. For the larger pieces, I had to become a bit of a mechanic, welding and building circuits etc. to get my motors to work as they were moving up to nine ballerinas at a time.
16. What do you like and dislike about you Ballerina work?
I loved their miniature fantastical quality. I really enjoyed making the pieces. I didn’t like the theatrical and dramatic connotations the pieces, nor the craft element they portrayed to the viewer, but this was unavoidable using dancers and the what looked like miniature figurines. Tat is why I developed the idea of figures further into simplified versions on paper.
17. Is there any artist that you can think of that you could relate your Ballerina work to?
Two actually, Christian Boltanski and Kara Walker. Boltanski for his use of dancing shadows creating haunting atmospheres and Walker because of her use of dark fantasy; playful childish scenes contrasted dark, sinister meanings.
18. What does your Ballerina work mean to you and why?
It is my exploration into the belief of finding harmony in seemingly contrasting things; that truth lies in dichotomies. This became important to me in a way to view life at the time and was expressed in my work by combining fragility and strength, masculine and feminine, light and dark etc.
19. What inspired you to create your Paper People, 'Crowd'?
I wished to communicate my ideas in a more direct and simple way, believing that if I could achieve this, it would have more of an impact on the viewer.
20. How did you create it and from what?
Very simple, paper and scissors, with the aid of whitetack for assembling it in installations, of course that means building the right room for it and painting it all white and making it light tight.
21. What do you like and dislike about your Paper People?
I love there ambiguity. The viewer really can interpret the work for themselves and discover more about their own unconscious connections that way. I love the simplicity of the piece and its ethereal quality. When you are alone in the dark with the work, I find it has quite a calming and quietening affect on the mind and body, leaving more truthful interpretations to evolve whilst contemplating the piece. I don’t dislike the work but realised through experience that there are successful and unsuccessful ways to set up an installation like this, which was a good experience to have.
22. Is there any artist that you can think of that you could relate your work on 'Crowd'?
Michal Rovner’s work relates closely to this work for me because of the cultural statements she makes in her work and the use of a monochromatic palette. Also piece’s like Antony Gormley’s ‘Field’ have a lot of relevance to my work in terms of the use of crowds and notions of collective consciousness.
23. What does your Paper People work mean to you?
My paper people, for me, bring joy both in an aesthetic and meaningful way. They articulate my belief in the power of people and the individual, the interconnectedness of us all and the possibility of harmonious living.
24. What are you working on now? And why?
I am working on getting back to basics and drawing, drawing everything I can.
25. If you could meet and talk to any artist dead or alive who would you like to meet?
(You do like the ask tough questions?) I can only say Leonardo DaVinci. He was integral to the progression of art and integral in the way he expressed himself in being an artist and inventor. On a more attainable level, Marina Abramovic, as I think I could learn a lot from her.
30. What 3 questions would you ask them? And why?
For Marina Abramovic-
1. Can you explain to me your experience of breaking through a barrier in your practice, be it through pain, endurance, starvation, meditation…?
2. How has your art influenced or confirmed your spiritual beliefs?
3. If you were to collaborate with another artist who would it be with and what would you desire to do with them?