COP TALK

Performative event, silkscreen posters, 2005–ongoing

Image of Silkscreen poster for 'Coptalk', Visual Art Academy Meuron, Neuchatel, Switzerland, 2018

Silkscreen poster for 'Coptalk', Visual Art Academy Meuron, Neuchatel, Switzerland, 2018

Since 2005, and on numerous occasions worldwide, Evans has invited representatives from national police forces to give recruitment presentations at art academies.


A letter is sent out to a contact within an art school. ("For a country to have an effective police force, its employees should reflect the demographics of society.") This is accompanied by a second letter – to be adapted and translated accordingly and sent out by the art school – inviting a representative of the local police force to offer vocational advice to the art students. The former entertains the possibility of the latter’s future in the police force.

Twenty 6 3x 48 cm silkscreened posters announce “Séance de recrutement de la police neuchâteloise, destinée aux étudiants en art visuels de l’académie de Meuron”, or applicable local phrasing; one is hung at the school.

The poster depicts a landscape with what could be described as a rock or a sculpture, with a stationary Lamborghini Countach (painted in the livery of the Dutch police force).

Cop Talk was originally commissioned by the Reitveld Academy, Amsterdam, in 2005 with the assistance of Linda Van Deursen. It has subsequently been commissioned for various institutions worldwide including Berlin Biennial, Taipei Biennial and Creative Time, New York ('Hey Hey Glossolalia, Exhibiting the Voice', 2008, curated by Mark Beasley).

Reviews
Christy Lange, '5th Berlin Biennial: Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours', frieze, 9 September 2008

Texts
'Chris Evans in conversation with Will Bradley', Contemporary Sculpture - Artists' Writings and Interviews, eds. Jon Wood and Julia Kelly, Hatje Cantz, 2020
'Chris Evans: Socially Awkward', Dan Kidner, Art & Research 2, no. 1, Summer 2008 (pdf link)


CHRONOLOGY

Art Academy of Meuron, Neuchatel, Switzerland
22nd May 2018

Art Academy of Nurnberg. Germany
8th January 2015

The Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laughaire, Co. Dublin
The National College of Art and Design, Dublin
The Dublin Insitute of Technology, Grangemorgan

9th December 2014

Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
15th June 2010

Ljubljana Academy, Ljubljana, Slovenia
28th May 2010

Academie for Visual Arts, Maastricht, the Netherlands
20th May 2010

Centrale Academie Ontmoeting, Breda, the Netherlands
26th March 2009

Koninklijke Academy of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium
6th May 2008

La Cambre, École nationale supérieure des arts visuels, Brussels, Belgium
5th May 2008

Pratt Institute, New York, USA
30th April 2008

Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
25th April 2008

The Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
6th December 2007

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
16th March 2006

Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
24th March 2005