Terry Evans
Terry Evans (American, b. 1944)
Slag Processing, Indiana Harbor, August 31, 2006, 2006
Inkjet print
30 x 40 in
Terry Evans (American, b. 1944)
Acid Rinse, Cleveland, July 12, 2006, 2006
Inkjet print
30 x 40 in
Terry Evans (American, b. 1944)
Three Wheels, 2007
Inkjet print
40 x 30 in
Terry Evans has devoted her career as a photographer to examining human interactions with and intervention into the natural environment. While Evans is perhaps best known for her extensive depictions of Kansas’s prairie landscapes, her more recent work has concentrated on the effects of urbanization and industrialization, particularly in and around Chicago where she relocated from Kansas in 1995. Slag Processing, Acid Rinse, and Three Wheels are from Evans’s Steel Work series, shot between 2005 and 2007. Focusing on individual elements of the production cycle, these three photographs are representative of the subjects and themes of the overall series, which provides a look into the manufacturing facilities of several different Midwestern steel mills. Slag Processing depicts a luminous aperture above a metal drum from which an infernal cascade of molten slag erupts. Acid Rinse shows a metal chamber, caked in layers of grease and rust, in which several robust jets of liquid spray onto a central rotary element. Three Wheels focuses on part of a lathe, in which the titular wheels, numerous levers and a small digital display refer to its human operators. In each of these photographs, Evans emphasizes the physical texture and intangible atmosphere of the places she photographs. While Evans portrays her industrial subjects with a reverence for their imposing scale and stark beauty, she also suggests the physical danger inherent in these inhospitable environments. By highlighting this tension, Evans alludes to both the creative and destructive potential of steel manufacturing.
Biography
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Terry Evans attended the University of Kansas where she completed her BFA in painting in 1968. She resided in Salina, Kansas, from 1968 to 1995 before moving to Chicago. Evans has worked extensively throughout Kansas and other parts of the Midwest, and she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States. Evans’s work has been supported by a number of prestigious grants, including a Guggenheim fellowship in 1996. In 2016 the University of Kansas presented Evans with an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
— Ben McBride, MA student in art history at the University of Kansas, April 2019