Ayana Evans

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Ayana M. Evans
Born
Cleveland, Ohio
Alma mater

Ayana M. Evans is an African-American performance artist and educator based in New York City and an adjunct professor of visual art at Brown University. She also serves as editor-at-large of Cultbytes, an online art publication.[1]

Evans's professional training focuses on traditional art forms, including painting, sculpture and fashion design. Her performances use ordinary activities such as crossing the street, changing clothes and exercising to call attention to her experience as an African-American woman. She has performed at festivals, museums, and art festivals around the United States, Martinique, and Ghana.

Her work has been reviewed in journals such as Hyperallergic,[2][3] New York Magazine's “The Cut”,[4] BOMB Magazine,[5] Cultbytes, artnet, The Coastal Post,[6] Huffington Post, BBC, and CNN. Her performances have been described as "grueling, yet nuanced performances using her own body to help audiences understand what black women often face"[7] and a response to "the pressures of the modern art world and the misogynoir gaze."[8]

Ruth E. Iskin of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, said her "public guerrilla performances have often forced Caucasian, middle-class art audiences into an uncomfortable proximity with urban, African-American identity."[9]

Personal life[edit]

Evans grew up in Chicago. Her mother and father, both behavioral health therapists, were from Alabama and Mississippi, respectively.[10] She earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University. She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and has an Associates Degree in Accessories Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She says her work was influenced by "what happened in my family as slaves, as black people who had overcome so much just to be what is considered 'normal' by American financial standards".[11]

Career[edit]

Evans says she shifted from fashion and painting to performance art to challenge her viewers. "In performance [as opposed to fashion] art, you are not worrying about capitalism. You can make the angriest painting, but when you put it on the wall, someone can walk away from it. But, if you are a performance artist I can cuss you out in person – I can throw a chair at you – and you got to jump," she told The Conversation.[12] Since making the transition, she has performed at museums, galleries, and performance art festivals in the United States and Africa, including Newark Museum, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum, Barnes Foundation, Medium Tings Gallery,[13][14] Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space,[15] NADA on Governor's Island,[16] Panoply Performance Lab,[17] and Ghana's Chale Wote festival.

Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, a curator and the editor-in-chief of Cultbytes, says that Evans' work addresses the anger and pain of racism, sexism, being treated or paid poorly at work, and the institutionalized art world’s marginalization of performance and performance artists.[11] Her live performances have included "Operation Catsuit", in which she walks around midtown Manhattan wearing a neon-green zebra-print bodysuit and purple stiletto-heeled shoes to gauge the reactions of passers-by, and "I Just Came Here to Find a Husband"[18][19][20] in which she ties a laminated sign with that slogan to her back while attending public events. She says "Husband" requires physical and mental endurance, including walking for 2–4 hours, often during the heat of the day, answering personal questions, listening to romantic advice, posing for photos upon request, and explaining her performance practice.[21]

In 2017, she performed "Throwing Hexes" as part of the Barnes Foundation's "A Person of the Crowd" exhibition.[22][23] Also in 2017, she performed "African Body Snatchers" at the 7th Annual Chale Wote Street Art Festival in Accra, Ghana.

Other international performances have included the FIAP performance festival in Martinique, The Pineapple Show at Tiwani Contemporary in London and the Movement Research Performance Festival (2016 & 2018).

In 2020, during the COVID-19 global health crisis, Evans performed online as part of the Inverse Performance Festival,[24] "Performance-in-Place: 4 Bodies 1 Screen" at The 8th Floor, Wa Na Wari,[25] and Company Gallery, among others.

She has also been featured as a speaker at Black Portraitures.[26]

Residencies, grants, awards and collaborations[edit]

Style[edit]

Evans centers her work around the intimate stories of black womanhood, exploring the social constructs of her own life. Trained as a painter and in fashion, color theory, texture, and fashion influence her work. Often her performances incorporate brightly colored fabrics, plastic tiaras, high heels, make-up, foodstuffs, and found objects to further engage viewers and to ground the work in both queer and popular culture. Evans uses her performance practice as a vehicle for change, as a performer, in comparison to a painter, she felt more enabled to confront “people who are unaware of their classism, people who are unaware of their racism, people who really don’t support black women, people who have a lot of gender bias and don’t support trans women, people who I think just need their eyes opened a little more.”[10]

Operation Catsuit[edit]

In 2012, Evans found the catsuit at designer Tiffany Rhodes, Butch Diva sample sale. It was one of the only things that fit her well, and so it became her art scene uniform, her trademark. Evans says that there is an aspect to her wearing the neon catsuit that is about self-acceptance and confidence.[10]

According to Evans, "My Operation Catsuit persona is me being 100% me. My hope is that this encourages others to be 100 % themselves. Both within and outside of the Operation Catsuit series I often perform solo durational actions like jumping jacks and high kicks in heels for 2–3 hours at a gallery with a full face of makeup or push-ups in heels in an intersection. These performance actions are designed to highlight the repercussions of racism and misogyny, as well as the power of a woman taking up space in ways that are traditionally reserved for cis straight men in the United States."[30]

In 2019, she was invited to present the ongoing project at the College Art Association's annual conference.[31]

I Just Came Here to Find a Husband[edit]

Combining physical and mental endurance, this participatory ongoing performance intervention constitutes the artist wearing a sign reading: "I Just Came Here to Find a Husband." The piece was born out of the artist's longing to create her own family and the frustration of not being able to find a husband in 2015.[32] Through humor for some and discomfort for others the piece unmasks the societal pressures women feel in relation to procreation and partnership and, as pointed out by a writer at The Root, serves as a commentary on the male and female gaze.[33]

Social Health Performance Club[edit]

Co-founded in 2014 by Evans, Esther Neff, and Elizabeth Lamb, Social Health Performance Club gathers as a collective of artists to produce events, exhibitions, and other public art projects. SHPC is framed as performances to work through social relationships as artistic processes that require ongoing critique, checking in and safe space conversation. SHPC has performed at JACK, Abrons Arts Center,[34] ABC No Rio, Queens Museum,[35] and Gallery Sensei.

Other activities[edit]

Evans co-edited Institution is a Verb: A Panoply Performance Lab Compilation, published by The Operating System, with Esther Neff, Tsedaye Makonnen, and Elizabeth Lamb. Seph Rodney, staff writer at Hyperallergic, praised the book as "a historical archive relating how the artists of PPL used that space to come into their powers and learn how to breathe fire.” About the publications importance Martha Wilson commented: "It's imperative [to document ephemeral art practice] if contemporary visual art performance is to be understood and analyzed in the future. The work of Panoply Performance Laboratory, which presented artists from 2012 to 2018, stands as a model organization, responsible for galvanizing the community it served."[36]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "About". Cultbytes. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  2. ^ Almino, Elisa Wouk (2018-06-21). "A Performance Artist's Tests of Endurance Honor the Black Female Body". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  3. ^ Rodney, Seph (2016-05-27). "Dangerous Bodies on the Verge of Breaking Down". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  4. ^ Peoples, Lindsay. "These 3 Women Are Changing the Art World". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  5. ^ "Outstanding, Girl, You Knock Me Out: Ayana Evans and Tsedaye Makonnen Interviewed by Jessica Lanay - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  6. ^ "Ayana Evans, Baring Truth". The Coastal Post. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  7. ^ Rodney, Seph (2020-06-19). "What It Takes to Raise a Black Woman Up". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  8. ^ "b.O.s. 10.2 / Operation Catsuit / Courtney R. Baker". ASAP/J. 2020-07-02. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  9. ^ Iskin, Ruth E. (2016-12-08). Re-envisioning the Contemporary Art Canon: Perspectives in a Global World. Taylor & Francis. pp. 148–150. ISBN 978-1-317-27504-6.
  10. ^ a b c Rodney, Seph (June 19, 2020). "What It Takes to Raise a Black Woman Up". The New York Times.
  11. ^ a b "Ayana Evans in Conversation with Anna Mikaela Ekstrand". FOA.
  12. ^ "Epis.#272: New York-Based Ayana Evans Reveals Her Honest Experience As A Black Woman Performance Artist". The Conversation. 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  13. ^ Weber, Jasmine (2018-11-28). "A Brooklyn Curator Forges a Space for Black Artists in Her Home Gallery". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  14. ^ Editorial, Artsy (2020-06-10). "Black-Owned Galleries You Can Support across the United States". Artsy. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  15. ^ "Ayana Evans "A Black Woman's Art Show and… A White Man's Exhibition"". www.nyartbeat.com. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  16. ^ "Editors' Picks: 18 Things Not to Miss in New York's Art World, Frieze Week Edition". artnet News. 2019-04-29. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  17. ^ "Ayana Evans | Panoply Performance Laboratory". www.panoplylab.org. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  18. ^ D’Oyley, Demetria Lucas (12 August 2015). "Sign of the Times: A Performance Artist's Creative Approach to Finding a Husband". The Root. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  19. ^ "Ayana Evans on Using Her Body as Performance Art". Bitch Media. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  20. ^ "Honesty On A Hunnid: Woman Wears Sign Saying She "Came Here To Find A Husband" Out In Public". MadameNoire. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  21. ^ Husband, I. Just Came Here To Find A. "About". I Just Came Here To Find A Husband. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  22. ^ "This performance artist is challenging you to rethink how you view others". pennlive. 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  23. ^ "Barnes tackles urban experience with 'Person of the Crowd'". AP NEWS. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  24. ^ "Inverse Performance Art Festival goes digital for 2020". Fayetteville Flyer. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  25. ^ "Ayana Evans". Wa Na Wari. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  26. ^ "Ayana Evans – Black Portraiture[s]". Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  27. ^ "Franklin Furnace Fund Recipients 2017-18". franklinfurnace.org. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  28. ^ "Gallery Gurls". Gallery Gurls. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  29. ^ "Past Grantees". The Jerome Foundation. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  30. ^ "Artist Statement". ayanamevans.
  31. ^ Evans, Ayana (2019-02-16). "Performance - Operation Catsuit". CAA. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  32. ^ "Honesty On A Hunnid: Woman Wears Sign Saying She "Came Here To Find A Husband" Out In Public". MadameNoire. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  33. ^ D’Oyley, Demetria Lucas (12 August 2015). "Sign of the Times: A Performance Artist's Creative Approach to Finding a Husband". The Root. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  34. ^ "Social Health Performance Club (SHPC) (United States)". Abrons Arts Center. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  35. ^ "Queens Museum". Retrieved 2021-01-03.
  36. ^ "Institution is a Verb : A Panoply Performance Lab Compilation – The Operating System". Retrieved 2021-01-03.
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