Linda Bowden - Passages
Passages - Artist’s statement
This show is about passages. Passages in time, in a narrative, in space, across a face, across buildings, moving from a to b. The work has been made in sets or series, a new approach for me. It reflects the past two years of work, a passage of my life, and no doubt reflects my thoughts or reflections at the time these pieces were created.
My influences are the Modernists and my inspiration found timber shapes, off-cuts, my local urban environment, my garden, as well as setting myself projects, in this case the word ‘passages’. I use found timber shapes as well as elements fashioned on a bandsaw. I have also worked with balsa wood in three of the series casting two in bronze. I consider colour to have a significant place in sculpture and use it where the work calls for it.
The occasional references to Russia in titles are the result of a trip there this year which included seeing some of the great Modernists including Matisse, Picasso and most exciting of all, Tatlin, the father of Constructivism.
I make work because I want to and I have to. I like to suggest the essence of a thing so in that sense the work is about abstractions of what occurs to me or what I see. I aim to make work which enlivens the space it inhabits and which interacts with the viewer in some sense. I don’t use my work to make social comment preferring the evocative over the provocative. I want to make things that might bring some beauty into the world and perhaps some joy to the viewer.