Evergon Nitty Gritty: Male Toilet Angst — Karl-Gilbert Murray

[Fall 2023]

Evergon, Boy Nest (Car Seat), Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 1998, de la série / from the series Manscapes, épreuve à la gélatine argentique / gelatin silver print, 76 × 94 cm

By Karl-Gilbert Murray

[Excerpt]

Ellephant, Montréal
25.02.2023 — 28.04.2023

The exhibition Nitty Gritty: Male Toilet Angst at Galerie Ellephant presents a group of Evergon’s photographs from the series Manscapes. Bathed in backlighting that indicates an aesthetic choice, the images suggest a sense of reflection that oscillates between study of morals and analysis of archaeological vestiges as they illustrate a form of domestication of a certain sequestered environment: the hidden world of male hook-ups.

Visually unique in Evergon’s body of work, Manscapes implies the perspective of a testimonial – the significance of the thing seen and, certainly, of the thing experienced. Analyzed as a fragmented history of sites of resistance frequented by a community of men, each photograph in this series from the 1990s preserves a collective memory through nostalgic black-and-white and colour images. During his travels from Niagara Falls to Edinburgh, from Frankfurt to Rome, from Goa to Sydney, passing through Toronto, Quebec City, and Montreal, Evergon compiled a sort of inventory of the geography of these places of homosexual encounter – public urinals, parks, beaches, deserted sites. The result is a visual “grand tour”: a typology of legendary places where people gather in silence…

[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 124 – SEEING THROUGH IMAGES ]
[ Complete article, in digital version, available here: Evergon Nitty Gritty: Male Toilet Angst — Karl-Gilbert Murray ]