Institute of Contemporary Arts

Cerith Wyn Evans: take my eyes and through them see you

Cerith Wyn Evans: And if I don't meet you no more in this world / Then I'll, I'll meet you in the next one / And don't be late, don't be late, 2006, © the artist; Photo: Stephen White; Courtesy Jay Jopling/ White Cube (London)

The ICA is delighted to present the first solo exhibition in a public, UK institution by the highly influential artist and film-maker Cerith Wyn Evans. Take my eyes and through them see you will bring fresh insight into the work of an artist who has undoubtedly had a significant impact on contemporary visual arts.

For this exhibition, Cerith Wyn Evans has conceived a set of entirely new works in direct response to the history, location and architectural particularities of the ICA. The show is also an opportunity for the artist to examine a personal relationship with an institution that has played an important role in his development. He first visited the ICA as a teenager in the early 1970s where he came to see Marcel Broodthaers' final exhibition La Bataille de Waterloo (The Battle of Waterloo), 1975. The exhibition, with its overtly critical political content had a tremendous effect on Wyn Evans and will be referenced within some of the new works made for the ICA.

Although Cerith Wyn Evans' background is predominantly in video and filmmaking - art forms which clearly inform and shape his work - he incorporates within his work a wide knowledge of literature, philosophy, music and photography to create a unique and distinctive body of work. This knowledge is reflected in works whose outward simplicity and elegance often disguises content this is both radical and complex. In particular literary influences are evident in his language-based works which contain remnants of ideas proposed by significant avant-garde movements of the 20th Century - from Surrealism to Conceptual Art. The sculptural 'chandelier' pieces for which he is probably best known - conceal literary sources from the last century including poems, letters, short stories and philosophy, the texts of which are transmitted through Morse-code enacted by the pulsing light bulbs. Wyn Evans is also interested in the way that soundtracks can provide a parallel narrative to films or photographs and in the slippage that occurs when the sound is dislodged, altered or removed.

A limited edition artists' publication is available from the ICA Bookshop.

Cerith Wyn Evans is represented by White Cube.

Mon-Fri: £2, £1.50 Concs; Sat-Sun: £3, £2 Concs; Free to ICA Members

Buy tickets on arrival.