Steven Evans: Songs for a Memorial
Songs for a Memorial (2020-22) consists of 12 text-based, polychromatic, LED sculptures designed to evoke neon signage and the dynamic energy of nightlife, creating vibrant layers of color throughout the Memorial. This newly commissioned work exists at the intersection of language and memory by way of Evans’ appropriation of titles from songs tied inextricably to the period surrounding the onset and height of the AIDS epidemic, from the 1970s hit “Love Is the Message” by MFSB, Sylvester’s anthem “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” and the early 1980s British synth-pop protest song “Why” by Bronski Beat among other Downtown New York club and radio favorites. By juxtaposing multiple song titles across genres, Evans weaves narratives of both individual and collective memory and history that simultaneously speak to complex relationships between loss, love, sadness, joy, and celebration—paradoxes that exist at the crux of his practice. As Julie Ault quoted Andrew Holleran, in her essay for Evans’ 2019 solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, “any memory of those days is nothing but a string of songs.”
Role: Curator
Date: May—September 2022
Location: New York City AIDS Memorial, New York, NY
Artist: Steven Evans
Production: Lite Brite Neon; Photography: Celeste Godoy
