Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

Locutions ( the loved object); work on paper







this was one of 10 works on paper in my exhibition Loctiuons (the loved object).
watercolour, pencil and aluminum foil

the work keeps changing according to the light source



 

















































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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

untitled ( 3 wine cups )

untitled ( 3 wine cups based on 2nd century BC Chinese wine cups)
copper, enamel paint



1. white wine cup detail : whitework Scottish 19th Century embroidery; engravings taken from illuminated manuscripts by Hildegard of Bingen 



2. blue wine cup detail : Yoruba textile; engraving from a 16th Century English embroidery



3. black wine cup detail : Tanshifa 18th Century Algiers embroidery; engravings from a 19th Century Chinese embroidery





































































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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman


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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

gratitude



there is much at the moment I am thankful for
this includes many people in my life


I have almost finished this body of work that has been a long time in the making

making this work has also made me realise how much I love working with metal, and then paper and paint. The two sit equally together for me.

I spent a period of time last year questioning whether this creative life was really for me. But these forms that I had started called me back to making, and I don't think now that I could stop even if I tried.

I would like to thank Ramona Barry who instigated this exhibition finding a home after I lost representation and my solo show with Dickerson gallery.
Ramona has been an incredible support to me and she is opening my exhibition.

I would also like to thank Bec Jobson and Nella Themelios for supporting this work to be exhibited at Craft Victoria.

I would like to thank David Searle at NMIT and Mark Edgoose at RMIT for allowing me access to the studios at both institutions.
A change in scale requires different tools and my workshop caters for jewellery scale.

Then there is:
Grattan, Ellen, Cheryl and Mandy et al
Gemma, Stacey, Liz, Jacqui, Michael, Robyn, Anna D, Nick, Belinda, that are part of my daily life, among many others.

Carmelo Ortuso is my graphic designer and I trust him wholeheartedly with my work. He is also very dear to me.

Most of all I thank Anna Clynes, who has assisted me on these objects when I have needed a second pair of hands. I can not thank her enough for her support.















































































































































































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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

Exhibition : Locutions ( the loved object) new work by Katherine Bowman‏‏





Untitled 2010
collage 
560mm width x 760mm length




here is the invitation to my exhibition

please click on the link to see the details:






GALLERY ONE


OPENING Thursday 8 September, 6-8pm

SHOWING 9 September – 15 October 2011

ARTISTS' TALKS Saturday 8 October, 2pm

31 Flinders Lane Melbourne


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 Untitled 2010
collage 
760mm width x 560mm length




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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

Locutions and the loved object

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locution n. 1. a particular form of expression; a phrase or expression. 2. a style of speech or verbal expression; phraseology.

 (from Latin locutio an utterance, from locui to speak)


Locutions is a body of work that I have been working on for more than two years now. 
The body of work that I was working on, was composed of both paintings and objects/small sculptures. Both explore the same subject but through different media.
This work was informed by many things, but the most defining was that of the notion of duende.
With this subject I was influenced by the writings of Federico Garcia Lorca, most notably his essay Play and Theory of the Duende, first delivered as a lecture in 1933, as well as Deep Song, a lecture given in 1922. 
Nick Cave follows these thoughts also in his lecture given in 1999 on writing the The Love Song. He writes:

The Love Song exists to fill with language, the silence between ourselves and God, to decrease the distance between the temporal and the divine. He goes on to say that …Through these songs I have been able to mythologise the ordinary events of my life, lifting them from the temporal plane and hurling them way into the stars.


From here I went to the writings of Jean Baudrillard and The System of Collecting, as a way of understanding the significance of objects, and how investment creates meaning:

Among the various meanings of the French word objet, the Littre dictionary gives this: 'Anything which is the cause or subject of a passion. Figuratively and most typically; the loved object.'

...the objects in our lives, as distinct  from the way we make use of them at a given moment, represent something much more, something profoundly related to subjectivity: for while the object is a resistant material body, it is also, simultaneously, a mental realm over which I hold sway, a thing whose meaning is governed by myself alone. It is all my own, the object of my passion.


This lead me to researching boxes.

box n. 1. a case or receptacle…with a lid…a small shelter


In The Collector’s Book of Boxes Marian Klamkin writes:

From the time when man first began to accumulate personal possessions he has required something in which to store them. From the need for a safe and easily transported container evolved the ubiquitous box.

…A study of boxes is a study of the changing values of civilised man, for by learning about the various uses of old boxes we acquire knowledge about those things that man felt were his most precious belongings.

…The box has been used to protect, contain, or simply to decorate, for centuries.


So my Locutions exhibition has now separated into 2 bodies of work. 

And the new work which is object based, is now called

Locutions (the loved object)

This work will be exhibited in September at Craft Victoria.
Locutions, comprising 9 watercolours and 5 large canvases will find a home somewhere else.


















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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

Locutions (works on paper), details

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Untitled 1. (detail)























Untitled 2. (detail)


































Untitled 3. (details)




































Untitled 4. (details)


























Untitled 5. (details)




































Untitled 6. (details)



























 Untitled 6. (details)























 Untitled 8. (details)





































 Untitled 9. (details)







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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

Locutions (works on paper)








Untitled (1) 2010
ink, watercolour, on paper
320 x 240mm















Untitled (2) 2010
ink, watercolour on paper
320 x 240mm














Untitled (3) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm














Untitled (4) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm














Untitled (5) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm











Untitled (6) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm














Untitled (7) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm













Untitled (8) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
320 x 240mm












Untitled (9) 2010
ink, watercolour and collage on paper
370 x 270mm



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Katherine Bowman Katherine Bowman

23 June 2010

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The 23rd June, a Wednesday, is the official non-opening of my exhibition.

Last year I signed on with a Melbourne art gallery, Dickerson Gallery. They offered me a solo show which was to open on the 23 June and go until the 10 July 2010.






The title of my exhibition was/is Locutions.
I have spent the last year working towards this show.







In April I was rung by the gallery and was told that the gallery would be closing in a couple of weeks, and that my show would not be going ahead and that I could come and collect the work that I had in the gallery.
I have been shocked at how very upset I have been about this.
I can let go about not being represented by that gallery.
The upsetting thing for me was that the day that I was rung by the gallery I stopped working on my art work. My Locutions exhibition. A body of work I have been researching and developing for two years.







I had decided to devote as much time as I could in the last couple of months to making the work and had not looked for paid work aside from my own business, so that I could devote myself to realizing my work. And then it all stopped. And I started questioning myself and what I was doing. Really questioned if it was worth pursuing this creative life. Questioning the choices that I had made the last 20 years that have led me to where I am now. and wondering if it was worth it.
The people in my life that I love helped me through this. My parents and sisters showed me how much they support me and what I do, they did this by just being there and simply saying that I should continue on with my work. Anna, Jacqui, Gemma, Robyn, Michael, Stacey, Belinda, Polly, Ramona,Vikki, Ange, among others, also encouraged me to keep going.
And then I started to miss my work, my Locutions.
So 2 months later I am back working on it. And have found a new home for it.
This body of work will be exhibited next year in September, a long way a way, but I can exhibit it in its entirety and that was most important to me. I have also lined up a solo exhibition of my jewellery which will be exhibited in November this year. Vikki Kassioras and I are collaborating on an exhibition as part of the fashion festival in September this year. I suppose that I decided to write about this here because a number of people have been asking about my exhibition in June and until now I had felt embarrassed talking about it, and found it hard saying that it was not going ahead.

And so my creative life continues. So the moral of this story is that there is no moral, only that life goes on and that this life I have is a beautiful life, and most days start with a walk at the creek




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