Organised by Emily Butler, Christine Eyene, Helen Nisbet, Joe Fletcher Orr & Doug Bowen, Richard H M Parry and Amy Sherlock, the theme this year follows “subcultures, identity, fluidity and self-determination” and will also include an immersive video game, ice cream, drones, VJ and DJ sets, street posters, experimental hair salon, and more.
Depression might not be the first thing you think while surveying the images from Down in the Dumps, a solo exhibition by Doug Bowen that ran at Liverpool’s Cactus Gallery from August 15 to September 13, 2015.
The Leeds-based artist who recently joined the Leeds Weirdo Clubas its newest membertakes a big step out of his comedic comfort zone for Down in the Dumps, using a more subtle approach to fine-tune a refined approach to the soft edges of depression.
Four works spread themselves throughout the exhibition on the walls. All are digital vinyl prints and, Bowen informs us, are painted over again and again with layers of opaque grey removable ink. What is seen peering through are unspecified pieces of marks falling apart and fractions of a saddened face staring towards the viewer. On another wall, pink bubbles overlap one another in the top right of their aluminium frame, dissipating eventually into greyness. Cactus received the prints ‘blank’, ready to be scratched off by the curator, leaving the artist seemingly as curious as the viewer as to when and why the curator stopped scraping. It’s certainly a lovely process to imagine, as satisfying as a scratch card but without disappointment.
On the third wall rests ‘The Official Squad Medal Collection 2015 (Collector’s edition) #1 – #24’, holding what could on first glance, tidy rows of white painted pills. They are melted down pieces of aluminium, hand-made medals, each dabbed and made individual with Tipp-Ex. They echo sweetly and are the inverse of the four originally uniform vinyl prints, scratched down to become up. **
Cactus is hosting the latest solo exhibition from artist Doug Bowen, titled Down in the Dumps and running at the Liverpool location from August 15 until September 13, with a private viewing on August 14.
Bowen, born in York and now living in Leeds, works in a variety of media, employing a kind of ‘case by case’ aesthetic with a variety of techniques for which ideas are the primary and aesthetics the secondary component. In his interview with Young Artists in Conversation (YAC), Bowen states: “They are made of the certain materials and look that particular way so they convey the idea.”
The Leeds Weirdo Club studio is launching a new publication titled Leeds Weirdo Club Annual 2014 at their Leeds location today, May 6.
As the working studio of artistsDoug Bowen, Matthew Crawley, Harry Meadley (whom we previously reviewed here) and David Steans—was founded by the latter three in 2012, and engenders a collaboration amongst the four artists’ solo practices.
Today, the three founders launch a new 200-plus-page publication, available for purchase at £20. The launch will feature special guest Gently Used, as well as free drinks.