Welshman and former filmmaker Cerith Wyn Evans is billed as one of the world’s foremost contemporary installation artists. Off the back of his recent major exhibition in France, his conceptual work Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible, comprising old and new works, is showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) on Warrane/Sydney Harbour. It is Wyn Evans’ first solo exhibition in the southern hemisphere and the Gallery’s major winter attraction. Entrance is included in the MCA’s general fee and is free for under 18s.
The installation is envisioned as a ‘parcours’, a route or walk in a park or garden. This a clever concept that echoes one of the artist’s favourite pastimes. It encourages participants to meander through neon, glass, screen-print pictures, text, fragments and sound installations. A frisson of risk comes from the fragility and placement of the works. Wyn Evans describes the sculptures as deeply planned and then carefully assembled by technicians to be site-specific.
The initial and enduring impression is of whiteness, light, shape, line and reflection. Many of the three-dimensional spatial installations are luminous, kinetic and sonic. Some of the most arresting pieces resemble children’s or industrial scribbles.
The art delivers an immersive experience. Suspended glass panels form a transparent maze. Chandeliers resembling iris flowers hang from the ceiling: one brightly lit and the other muted. Delicate columns of light gradually brighten and fade. Smashed car windscreens reflect the columns that share their space to emulate viewing nature or art through a screen. Three large rough-hewn amethyst geodes explode crystalline seeds. Nature’s violent geometric beauty is a brilliant foil.
Recorded bird song and slowly revolving plastic-potted plants are more literal iterations of the natural world. The latter are conflicted. Placed seemingly randomly and without developing any hint of growth or abundance, they leave an impression of tokenism.
Four remnants of plasterboard from previous exhibitions that have personal importance to the artist hang as representations of memory and significance. They carry the ‘seed’ of past success.
Wyn Evan’s interest in Japan permeates the show. It is specifically displayed through two Japanese gongs complemented by an original soundscape, several silk screen-printed pictures and the Japanese text that soars in the final room.
And it is the final room that is the epitome of the exhibition. Two major installations are juxtaposed and ‘speak to’ each other. In one, lines of intricate Japanese script hang vertically and may represent the disciplined and rational. They invite the viewer to walk through a gap, like going backstage behind a theatre curtain. The second is a neon ear canal or conch shell-like musical instrument compilation that suggests the free-flowing and emotional.
Its shapes and curves hint at flutes, church organ bellows, horn and halo. It transmits organic sounds composed by the artist that allude to water or womb. Although made of neon it inexplicably remains opaque. Notwithstanding, this room unlocks and unifies the exhibition through its fusion of shapes, sound, dissonance and harmony.
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The absence of labels and titles of the artworks, signage and catalogue (the latter will be available in July) is discombobulating, yet marks a deliberate decision to encourage patrons to form their own impressions and interpretations. Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible is all about viewer response. There is much to reflect on and absorb. Wyn Evans is a fine composer of sound, light and space. His ‘light sculptures in graphic form’ dazzle and lure.
Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible, Museum of Contemporary Art
Curator: Lara Strongman
Assistant Curator: Antares Wells
Tickets: $28-$35; free for under 18s
Cerith Wyn Evans …. in light of the visible will be at the MCA, Tallawoladah, Gadigal Country, 140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney until 19 October 2025.
