Everything I Have and then some

As I’m just about to cram two duffel bags full of Everything I Have here and hop the trains, I stumble upon this work by Simon Evans currently on view at the James Cohen Gallery in NYC. Ahhh it reminds me why I’m happy to be headed back east. Even though the artist is from England you simply don’t have the density of shows like this in St. Louis; a relatively small or low-key show by comparison to your museum-class exhibitions (still at a classy Chelsea gallery, it’s all about sliding scales!), that is able to make headlines at this and many other blogs. That density which allows you to choose from the diversity of work available, or even just to react to and make a comment on.

Well, frankly, no way in hell could this work depict me in any way!

Of course it resonates with me. Hell it speaks directly to me! I got a lot of shit!

Unfortunately for me, this would be only page 1 of 316! No way could I cram everything I own on one piece of paper, unless that piece of paper was the size of a football pitch. But then it might just be easier to transport everything and simply lay it all out, rather than attempt to visually depict it for viewing inside a gallery. To be honest I’m a wee skeptical of work like this. After all this piece was fabricated with ‘Pen, paper, scotch tape, white out’ – are those materials depicted in the work? What about your shoelaces; are they not separate from your shoes? I just bought a pair of shoelaces this past week. Does that mean right now they are their own autonomous object, but as soon as I thread them into my kicks they lose their identity to the more-prominent apparel? Actually, I can guarantee you the shoelaces I bought will forge their own identity!

I’m just about sick though of seeing British artists interpreting the London Underground tube map. Even though Simon Evans uses woven paper to convey his message and that’s, well, that’s awesome! Still, Simon Patterson’s The Great Bear just about did it for me, and I don’t feel the need to routinely recycle this idea, no matter how witty and clever your station names are (Architects Rectify Their Bodies). Plus Patterson’s work was circa 1992! It seems to be something that plagues any British artist named Simon I reckon.

His works like Green City are what really do it for me however.

Very large-scale and nearly borderless drawings using pen, scotch tape and correction fluid on paper, an aerial depiction of a sprawling city fabricated in Simon’s mind – I think I see London, I think I see Toronto, I think I see NYC housing projects. And the Green suggestive of architectural/environmental trends of this era. But wouldn’t it simply be easier to paint everything green? That would be a Green City after all.