Design and Art Australia Online

Dale Jones-Evans, architect, artist, designer, art collector, publisher, director of Dale Jones-Evans Pty Ltd and adjunct professor of the School of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology in Sydney was born in 1955 in Melbourne, Victoria. It was in Melbourne where he spent most of his childhood. Jones-Evans was raised within an artistic environment with his mother greatly involved in crafts and his father in painting, albeit after retirement. His strong interest in art is later exemplified by both his architectural projects and art works. The disciplines of fine arts, urban geography and the political economy of world cities inform Jones-Evans’s approach to architecture.

In 1977 Jones-Evans completed a Diploma of Fine Art at the Caulfield Institute of Technology (later Monash University) in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1978, Jones-Evans began his study for the Bachelor of Architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria. He began working as an architect in 1983, establishing his first company, Biltmoderne, before completing his Bachelor of Architecture in 1987. Jones-Evans’s first architectural project, Inflation Nightclub, had received the Victorian Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) 1985 Merit Award, gaining significant recognition for him as an innovative contemporary architect in Australia. In 1988, he established his second office, Dale Jones-Evans Pty Ltd Architecture (DJE). In 1993 Jones-Evans re-located to Sydney and in 2005 made Zoe Jenkins and Maki Yamaji Associates. The practice has produced a diverse body of architectural, interior, residential and commercial projects including The Gallery House (1987-90), The M Central (2003-2005), Kemenys Liquor and Sydney Opera House Bennelong Restaurant (2001). DJE architectural practice has been highly awarded and received wide-spread recognition, including nine RAIA national and state awards, numerous industry awards and in 1988, an international award, 'International Record Houses Award’, from the United States of America. In 1991 and 2008, Jones-Evans also represented Australia at the 5th and 11th International Architecture Biennial in Venice, Italy, respectively.

The correlation between his artistic and architectural practice is explicitly demonstrated through Jones-Evans’s architecture. The Art Wall (2002-03) in Kings Cross, Sydney, exemplifies the inextricability of art and architecture. It is both architecture and public art because while being a redeveloped commercial building consisting of offices and retail shops, it is also surmounted with a “mural”, a steel structure with backlit vinyl cloth with the digital print derived from a painting by Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Jones-Evans frequently collaborates with artists in architectural projects. The Red Box (2003-04) is a collaborative work with the Spanish- Australian artist, Dani Marti. It is comprised of a pixilated glass tunnel, which acts as a pedestrian transit space to mediate high winds between the two Mirvac towers in Docklands, Melbourne. Other public art projects include the Metalika (2004), also in Docklands, and the Hawkesdale Community Public Art Project (2001) in Hawkesdale Victoria. Jones-Evans has become well-known for his public art, a practice that also allows him to reach a wide audience. Additionally, he collaborates with other artists in his artworks. In 2005, with Aspasia Sagiotis, Jones-Evans co-directed and designed the performance art piece 2050 Still Humans, which was performed by Ingrid Kleinig and Kirk Page, exploring the idea of the influence of technology on human beings via electronic sounds, dance and movement.

Jones-Evans expresses his interest in the specific nature and history of Australia through his artworks. In 2001, for the refurbishment of the Sydney Opera House’s Bennelong restaurant, he incorporated large cylinder lamps painted with broad gestural brushstrokes by Indigenous artist Barbara Weir, and eight memorial totem poles, which give the dramatic effect of emerging from the ground. They act as a symbol of Aboriginal reclamation of the ground upon which the Opera House stands. In 2006, Jones-Evans collaborated with the Aboriginal artists Bronwyn Bancroft in the Eveleigh Public Artwork in Redfern, Sydney. Bancroft had responsibility for the painting whereas Jones-Evans designed the accompanying wall piece and sculpture for a project which aims to improve the Hugo Street Reserve, making it a safer and more inviting place for the local Indigenous residents.

Jones-Evans has a diverse artwork portfolio, ranging from public, installation art to digital construction. Some of his artworks are provocative, for instance, 2050 Still Humans was staged at the Victoria Room, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, taking the diners/ audience by surprise. Even more so was his 2006 POL Oxygen Magazine Designex exhibition artwork which incorporated over 160 glass jars holding real sheep brains lining the walls, each of them labelled with the name of a creative 'mind’ featured in POL Oxygen magazine over the years.

Jones-Evans is also a publisher who co-founded and edited the independent journal POLIS (1994-95), which examined the development of cities from an urban geographic, planning and design perspective. In addition, he wrote and independently published a photographic book called Sea Gods in 2000, which examined Australia’s seminal surfing figures – with photos taken by photographer Ashley Jones-Evans, his brother. Sea Gods won the 2001 National Print Awards Gold Medal.

In 2008 Jones-Evans was still residing in Sydney and working mainly as an architect and artist.

Writers:

De Lorenzo, Catherine Note: Secondary biography
Tse, Wing Nga (Bryoni) Note:

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2008

Status:

peer-reviewed