Evergon‘s latest exhibition at Galerie Trois Points is an ensemble piece, each work reinforcing the narrative of the other. The show titled Shanghaied: Barking Dogs Boys Silent Koi was inspired by his recent trip to Shanghai and the nearby ancient city of Zhouzhuang. In this “Venice of China” the artist spotted two lonely dogs marooned on a tiny artificial island floating in one of the water channels. These dogs became the central characters of the artist’s most recent body of work, symbolizing our animal nature, man’s best friend, the caged beast, the urban scavenger.

Galerie Trois Point’s main exhibition space has been transformed into a screening room, its walls painted anthracite grey. Simple renderings of a dog and a crouching human with a dog mask are painted directly on the dark walls, remincient of cave paintings depicting ancient gods. Projected on the large gallery wall are a series of videos which at first appear to be still photographs of landscapes, but are in fact documentaries of clandestine meeting places of the gay underground.

The flat screen in the small exhibition room features a video of the marooned dogs, trapped on a small square of land. This slightly surreal image is also a reference to the sequestering of gays in society, confined to gay village “islands”, the underdogs in the urban jungle.

Like a fable, Evergon’s work reveals dark secrets and shines a light on the unseen, the unacknowledged, and on ourselves.

Galerie Trois Points, space 520
Evergon
Shanghaied: Barking Dogs Boys Silent Koi
October 8 – November 5, 2011
www.galerietroispoints.qc.ca