C. B. Evans
born in 1983 in Cleveland, USA; lives in St. Denis, France
A plant, a camera, pigeon of chaos, trapped spirits, a terrazzo of time (for “A Future Adaptation of Giselle”), 2021
wallpaper, recurring pattern, digitally edited
Commission evn collection 2021
First shown at Wallpaper #5, 2022 in Maria Enzersdorf, Austria
Inv. No. WP_27
A Future Adaptation of Giselle: with the subtitle of the wallpaper, C.B. Evans explicitly references their long-term, multipart project. In this body of work, the artist engages in a contemporary, speculative reinterpretation of the classical ballet Giselle, first premiered in Paris in 1841. Regarded as a milestone of Romanticism, the ballet established technical standards for classical dance and shaped enduring ideals of female protagonists on the theatrical stage. In Evans’ adaptation, which encompasses films, installations, performative formats, and objects, this canon is radically reconfigured: Giselle becomes a feminist thriller set in a future shaped by climate crisis, ecological transformation, and migration. The project examines states of transition, processes of adaptation, and relationships between human and nonhuman actors. Central themes include mutability, collective agency, and forms of life existing under conditions of continual change. Another part of the title, a terrazzo of time, frames time as a material composed of fragments. Terrazzo as material is created from heterogeneous pieces assembled into a new surface; accordingly, time here is conceived not as a linear progression but as a layered constellation in which past, present, and possible futures coexist simultaneously. This conception aligns with Evans’ Giselle project, which deliberately oscillates between the nineteenth-century ballet and speculative future scenarios, emphasizing transition rather than fixed states. In this context, the reference to trapped spirits may be read as an image of unfinished temporalities, suspended figures, and ongoing transformation. As a large-scale, space-defining element, the wallpaper functions within the working and exhibition environment of the evn collection as an atmospheric condensation of key concerns in Evans’ practice: temporality, technological mediation, ecology, and the persistence of past and future orders. It creates a visual continuum in which time materializes—as surface, as environment, and as part of an open narrative structure. C.B. Evans is an American-Belgian artist who lives and works in Saint-Denis, France. Their practice brings together video, sculpture, installation, and text to examine the role of emotion in relation to technological, ideological, and social structures.continue reading
Text: Heike Maier-Rieper, 2026
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)