Chasing Evie
Words by Micah Higbed and Alice Williams.
The first time I heard about her was April Fool’s Day last year.
More than three hundred cars were fully cling wrapped, each thoughtfully equipped with the scissors needed to free them from their plastic cocoons and a sweet gift tag signed by Evie, with love.
But it wasn’t so easy – as elusive as she is mischievous, Evie proved a mystery. No real names, no address, no phone number or bank accounts. Information was scarce, though a release on the net clued me into her plan: to ‘re-invigorate society’s sense
of humour whilst altering perceptions of social interaction’.
In short, Evie is here to make your day.
After throwing a wild warehouse party (I asked around, but the host remained an enigma, nowhere to be found), Evie had another gift in store for the city of Melbourne.
On the last official day of a long winter, thousands of office workers, on their unyieldingly grey, morning commute were greeted by the sight of real, honest to goodness, Dickensian snowmen sporting top hats, carrot noses and another message from Evie ‘We aren’t here for a long time, so enjoy it.’
Strategically placed at the exits of all the city-loop train stations, some of the slow melting installations were protected by hastily arranged Police tape and were still, mostly, there until after 6pm that evening.
A few days later she made fun of the Swine Flu hysteria the media was whipping up and cashing in on by sheathing the mouths of many of the city’s statues with surgical face masks, telling us ‘Swine is fine.’
After sharing my search with a friend who works in a respected media outfit, he told me about a receipt Evie had sent around the industry asking people how they liked their coffee. Any who took the time to humour her with an answer were rewarded by a delivery from a snowman-suited friend of Evie.
Evie’s website doesn’t give much away. There are tasteful mug shots of the photos we have here (our source has me sworn to secrecy, telling me only that the photos are the spirit of Evie). It’s clear that it isn’t attention that she seeks. The official line is: ‘Evie exists to encourage youthful freedom of expression within society with the goal of making you smile’.
Like a proverbial superhero ‘Evie will arise when the need to revitalise inspiration amongst society is evident’. With obvious hope that we will accept these gifts and be inspired to exercise our own dynamic forms of expression, so that one day these unparalleled, creative antics become the rule and not the exception. A big endeavour maybe, but a worthy one.
Though quiet for the past few weeks, I’ve heard through the grapevine Evie is planning a cheeky prank titled ‘To hell with tomorrow, my clothes, my cares’ which sounds sure to hit the headlines.
Enticingly there is also a promise of a “large scale gift involving over a thousand people” set for this Summer and I’ll be there, chasing Evie.
[...] party planned… Part organized by a group of Melbourne pranksters called Evie (more on them here) the party required everyone to register via email, you were then messaged an address on the day [...]