Evan Hudson

December 2, 2019

Artist Evan Hudson uses the "aesthetically familiar" material plasticine, or modeling clay, to construct naïve looking scenes that pack a sinister punch. His work riffs on the bas relief tradition— a historical form commonly used to canonize military heroes. Evan uses our preconceptions around modeling clay, borrowed from daycares and claymation, as a Trojan Horse, he says, to subvert our "child-like" narratives and "drive an ulterior message." His, er, 'paintings,' let's call them, are nestled somewhere between the Greek Parthenon, Tim Burton, and Peppa Pig.

In one painting we see what appears to be a brown anthropomorphic bomb grinning wide, tongue out, landing with a trail of flames into a field of very green grass— the kind you would see at a track and field event. It reads to me as "bomb + track," a nod to the 1991 Rage Against the Machine song, "bombtrack," in which Zack de la Rocha declares:

Dispute the suits, I ignite, and then watch 'em burn

Burn, burn, yes, you're gonna burn!

There is unapologetic nihilism in both the painting and the song but Hudson delivers his message with a veneer of naïveté and not the aggressive angst of much of the music of Gen X. It is this ironic delivery of authentic sentiment that is both compelling in Hudson's case and also coming to characterize Gen Z in statements like "OK Boomer."

In another painting there is a bear wearing a human skin, walking upright, and carrying a bloody sword across an ochre field under a true blue sky. The painting hits, at least initially, like a good one liner: "HAHA The bear is wearing the human lol!" But keep looking and it unsettles. There's some kernel of truth in there about interspecies violence, exploitation, and planetary survival.

Finally, in the simple composition above, we see amber waves of grain being methodically slathered in green paint, the bucket resting mid-way as if taking a break. It casts a shadow that at first appears real, coming from the dimensional lip of the paint pail, but on closer inspection, is 'painted' using plasticine. The painting is a clever commentary on the American practice of painting lawns green in drought conditions only to keep up appearances. This practice is itself but a microcosm of the behaviors that have brought us to the brink of ecological collapse.

Evan will be showing work at the department of Canadian Heritage as well as at the Unqork offices in New York over the next few months. Check him out on Instagram for more! @evanhudson__