I rarely look in a mirror these days, not because I want to avoid my reflection, but simply because I don’t have one in the apartment I’ve recently settled into, after leaving Amsterdam. I packed light: a fiery-red kimono brought back from a recent trip to Japan, an Issey Miyake shirt given to me one birthday, and a midnight-blue suit by DVN are what serve as my dress-up options, if need be. But, truthfully, it’s mostly thermal underwear that calls to me now, and shoes that give me grip as I navigate the slippery slope of this next chapter. Elegance, it seems, is being served with the volume turned down. And yet, here it is, ever present in my mind through the work of Evelyn Taocheng Wang.
I’ve always felt that there is a calmness about Evelyn Taocheng Wang’s work that exudes a rare kind of poise – the kind that doesn’t need to be loud to be noticed. In general, Wang’s work draws upon feminist authors with wit and insight, mediating on body politics, immigration, and language. This too is deeply embodied in her installation Spreading Elegance, currently on view at Galerie Fons Welters. Initially created for a 2019 exhibition at FRAC Champagne Ardenne in Reims, the installation was later presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2020 as part of In the Presence of Absence, and again in 2021 at X Museum, Beijing. It has now returned to Amsterdam.