Magic Elixir, Evan Kelemen

Sculptural spirals from beachcombed objects, small ceramics, buttons, sea glass, copper parts, metal objects, testosterone vials in smashed pieces, syringe covers, vial covers, and gold spray paint. It presents a portal through which medical transition is possible.

Title: Magic Elixir

Artist: Evan Kelemen
Date: 2022
Medium/Materials: Found objects and medical vials on board

Dimensions: 30 cm x 30 cm
Form/Genre: Assemblage

Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Mental health; Resilience; Gender-affirming care; Transitions

Artist Statement:

Evan Kelemen’s creative approach has consistently been layered, juxtaposing multiple techniques, materials and mediums, to highlight the inherent contradictions in the world around us. His work often explores themes of self-awareness and critical thinking, as key tools to cultivate and protect sovereignty. Whether this be of body, mind, soul or society in general. The work was created after a long period of reflecting on his own transition from female to male. Kelemen wanted to create a piece that visually conveyed that the medical part of his transitioning was magical, almost alchemical in the ways it brought him to be OK with his body and his appearance as a male. However, he also wanted to convey that it was a difficult process and continues to be one of challenges and questions. Kelemen did this by utilizing found objects, both organic and inorganic, to convey the challenge of medical transition as something both natural and synthetic. In other words, his transition was both medically natural, using natural parts of him to reshape and reform, while also using found objects to signify the synthetic parts of his medical transition: the implants, the testosterone hormone itself, and the revision procedures he had to undergo to fix parts that did not go as planned. The scars remain as signifiers that transition is never perfect, is never without problems, as well as representing a body Kelemen feels at home in; a body that he can inhabit without shame, fear or gender dysphoria. This piece is literally part of Kelemen, in a very visceral way, that took a lifetime to piece together.

Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:

Created after Kelemen’s transition from female to male, after all the surgeries and after years of being on testosterone, during a very difficult mental health period - COVID  and all the fear, confusion and isolation that came with it. He made this piece as a way to survive and to visually quantify all he had been through. 

Rights for this Image:

This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.

Learn More:

Instagram: @evank_paints