Tony Bowen

Tony Bowen

Since postgraduate study, Tony Bowen has divided his time between personal practice and art and design education, predominantly in the post-compulsory sector. Whist a graduate of painting, a developing interest in making photographs gradually emerged: initially informing and supporting work with other media, and subsequently as outcomes in their own right. A preoccupation with found marks and their interpretation has spanned many years. Recent material focuses largely on observing and documenting very ordinary surfaces in nature and in the urban environment which, whilst often overlooked, provide rich, diverse and dynamic sources of interest and surprise. Two confluent fascinations form essential and enduring elements in his work: firstly, atmospheric and formal considerations; secondly, the power of the trace, the fragment and the unresolved to provoke the imagination in unexpected ways. Work has been shown in the UK, the USA and Europe.

About Work

This small, current body of photographs (March 2020) is being made during (permitted and solitary) ‘lockdown’ woodland walks in the early “DELAY” stage of the COVID-19 crisis. A collective anxiety and sense of panic, which has permeated communities all over the world, prompts continuous, involuntary thoughts about the chances and potential consequences of becoming infected. Despite measures to isolate from others, the long incubation period of this weird and (still) invisible disease gives rise to a dark and relentless sense of dread, for ourselves and for those around us. In the woods, the unity and coherence of this soft and welcoming environment is occasionally disrupted, A number of trees, helpless in their own fate, have been “chosen” for various outcomes, ranging from violent human intervention to the hosting of new organisms, welcome or otherwise. As spring begins to take a hold and the sun begins to offer some warmth and comfort, life goes on in this majestic and atmospheric space, albeit with numerous undercurrents, each depicted by coded, coloured spots and marks: some real, others imagined. These visual encounters seem to give strange, metaphorical form to the human narratives unfolding around them

Follow him on Instagram: @tonybowenphotography

Chosen - Untitled 1 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 2 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 3 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 4 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 5 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 11 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 12 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 13 - Photograph, 2020
Chosen - Untitled 14 - Photograph, 2020
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