Cerith Wyn Evans' text works

I am a fan of words. More specifically, I am a fan of other people's words. I frequently find myself taking note of a song lyric I think is particularly special, or being moved by a line of film dialogue or an example of phrasing in a book. I like the idea of pulling a particular line or phrase out of its context and presenting it elsewhere, so it's meaning is determined by its new location, and the people who view it.

Just play me two bars of stardust (2011) (from the song Fools Fall in Love by The Drifters)

Born in Llanelli in 1958, Cerith Wyn Evans made his move into the contemporary art scene in the 1990s; he spent the 1980s working in film after graduating from the Royal College of Art. What I really like about Wyn Evans' text work (apart from the fact that it's neon and I really fuckin' love neon) is that he pulls many of the words and phrases featured in his work from existing examples of popular culture. He takes these phrases, gleaned from film, literature, music, and a plethora of other sources, and strips them of their context. There is a kind of beauty in their ambiguity and open-endedness. I'm also really jealous of the way the guy pulls off that minimalist aesthetic 👌

Installation view of Voodoo Child (2012), at the Galerie Neu in Berlin, where the 1400cm text filled the main gallery space. From the song Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix.

So clean! So minimal! So conceptual!

Go look at the rest of Evans' works on Google because this man has no Instagram or website for some reason.