Evilution

"Civilisation has greatly benefited from man's infinite capacity for research and invention: a capacity that is frequently harnessed for the destruction of others, the full horror of which can manifest itself at any time."

So writes Roy Ray, the artist behind the ongoing Evilution project, a project which is Ray's personal response as an artist to this evil phenomenon and its innocent victims in relation to the times in which he has lived, the people he has met and the events he has witnessed.

For this purpose, he is using constructions, collages, photographs and video together with writings which include those drawn from numerous childhood memories. The first phase of the project focusses on examples for which a single name is synonymous with the mass destruction of innocent lives by the corrupt use of science and technology.

Five panels from this first phase of the project, each measuring 5ft x 2ft, have been on display at Coventry Cathedral throughout 2010 and are "memorials to the millions of innocent men, women and children who became victims of conflict by the corrupt use of science and technology: many because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or from the wrong country or wrong race." The panels have been exhibited as a group with the title 'Where their footsteps left no trace' and each panel represents a place, the name of which is synonymous with this evil phenomena:

"Every single one of those people meant something to someone and should not be forgotten ... The lowest part of each panel has the common denominator of ash and rubble common to each of these places of Evilution and symbolising the destruction of people and places."

The next phase of the project will deal with the Western Front during the 1914-18 War which destroyed a generation of young men who were the victims of innocence. Regular updates of the Evilution website will deal with future phases and other aspects of the Project, one which is likely to occupy Ray for the forseeable future.

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T Bone Burnett - Earlier Baghdad (The Bounce).