Evan Higgins

Ritual codifies belief by connecting elevated ideas to the physical realm. It is at once completely illogical and ultimately powerful. Ritual has been a part of the human experience since our beginning and in this ever changing world it too will evolve. I synthesize rituals, methodologies and personal experience to make work that is seemingly purposeful, familiar, and yet aware of it’s irrational shortcomings. Tribal practices, worship, offerings, modern dooms day mythologies, 1980‘s florescent surf culture, Eastern philosophy, Biblical themes, shamanism, and the California New Age movement, to name a few, act as guiding influences. Emblematic objects representing travels, or certain periods in my life are woven into these pseudo ritualistic pieces. The paint sometimes literally, holds these disparate themes together. For example in “This Bush is Burning” a fluorescent bush without vegetation rests on top of a pedestal painted with a post apocalyptic landscape. The reference to the biblical story of the Burning Bush hints at the moralities of Judeo-Christian beliefs  while toying with the name by sexualizing it. Central to the piece is a single grain of sand and the bush, each collected at solitary beaches in Bali and Baja respectively. They reference personal moments of great insight and celebration. This offering/holy relic/sculpture is the bi-product of a celebratory ritualistic action made by a fervent believer who is plagued with the knowledge that their endeavors are futile.