Please join us at an open house for artist in residence Megan Evans and a viewing of work in progress from her project SIMPLICITY.

This body of work has been produced during a three week residency at BoxoHOUSE and connects to a larger project called Keloid that looks at the effects of colonisation on the original inhabitants of a land. Keloid begins in Megan’s home country of Australia and examines the traces of early colonial history in the identity of the artist and the impact of that history as it unfolds today. Originally from Scotland and Ireland, her ancestors were colonisers in Australia in the early 1800’s. In 1983, Megan met and later married an Aboriginal man who was one of the Stolen Generation (a government policy of removal of Aboriginal children from family). Through her relationship with him, she began to understand the full impact of colonisation.

While on a recent three month residency in Liverpool UK, Megan looked at the wealth produced from slavery in that city. Now in Joshua Tree, her work has focused on the dispossession of Native American communities in the region. The artist considers how the lingering effects of a difficult past still play out in the social relationships within communities through prejudices, stereotypes and misinformation. Her premise is that contemporary cultures are disconnected from their past due to an avoidance of feelings of shame that arise if the facts of that past are confronted. The irony is that there are many valuable learnings in terms of living with the land, living with each other and living with ourselves that have been lost through this disconnection. Confronting the past and reconciling with the original inhabitants of the area can lead to a rich healing.

In Megan’s own words: “The work principally reflects my own grief at the loss of connection with cultures that I admire and yet am disconnected from. I yearn for a sense of belonging to country.”

Megan Evans is a multidisciplinary artist, based in Melbourne, Australia, working in video, photography, sculpture, and installation. Her work engages with the nature of community and relationships, examining the role of art as a dynamic for social transformation. Evans’ new media work builds on a background in the traditional mediums of painting and drawing.

Artist Website: https://www.meganevansartist.com