The Monthly interviews Omagh based abstract expressionist, Ronan Bowes – Part 2 – Towards a unique orientation in producing art

Do you have a theoretical underpinning to the art which you create?

I was looking at a lot of abstract expressionist work throughout my time in art school and really connected with their theories of subjectivity and intuitive processes that reflected their emotions or views on society. Growing up in Northern Ireland in a ‘post-conflcit’ era but still experiencing some of what the ‘Troubles’ were like, for example the aftermath of the Omagh bomb and other sporadic events thereafter, seeing what that does to the people around you is very difficult to articulate/process. I used painting and drawing as a means to escape or express what trauma was suppressed. In my early work you can see this clearly in the explosive mark making and violent applications of materials.

Construction with the paint and collage material #discourse #process #painting #contempora

Recently however, my thinking is more concerned with painting’s history of dealing with the flat surface and space of the picture plane, that coupled with our obsession with phones, the flat screen and all these abstract interactions and transactions we process everyday- the majority in which are in the 2-dimensional. Even the way we look at art now in the digital realm is a concern for me. I mean it’s great to see so much work in such a quick format but are we really getting to the essence of the work through the ‘middle thing’ being the screen.

I think it’s interesting to think of painting in the expanded field. A theory or idea  in that painting can/is breaking away from the confines of the 2-dimensional and evolving into the 3-dimensional. I see it as a kind of action against the flat digital world. A kind of coming together of sculpture and painting which has historically had their differences. Instead of the banal argument over which is more relevant painting or sculpture, or that painting is ‘dead’ doesn’t really matter any more because both are more alive than ever.

Also with the advancement of technology and the digital I think some artists are more concerned with getting back to making things with their hands and getting in touch with the innate relationship of natural material.

I think that’s where I’m at with my work today. The connection, or the grey area between painting and sculpture- and how the materials you play with and experiment with can speak for themselves whilst also speaking about you and for you on a subconscious level.

To the Moon and Back – 2018-22 – oil, oil bar, acrylic, aerosol, chalk, ink and plywood on aluminium with aluminium sub frame – 55 x 38cm

Could you explain a bit more about going beyond the two dimensional restrictions of the surface?

When I work I set out to make something that will excite me, I want to see something that is new or progressive- painting has been confined to the frame for centuries. I’m interested in breaking away from this tradition and exploring painting’s ability to express/articulate itself outside that space.

Are there any ideas which you aim to convey with your work?

I do but it is quite a convoluted process. It can also be quite haphazard. I draw, paint and make 3-dimensional objects. The 3-dimensional sometimes get incorporated into my 2-dimensional paintings, sometimes I use the 3-dimensional objects to make marks on the 2-dimensional surfaces and I am doing that continually – the drawing, painting, constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing until a body of work comes together that begins to communicate something.

Sometimes the work itself reflects a personal experience, it might be a memory of a walk, an observation of a river bend, a traumatic memory that a certain street can provoke, a reaction to a particular social or political  event or sometimes it can just be an escape from reality.

It’s difficult to pin down because it feels like I’m developing a new process, where the key ideas might be life, death and rebirth; they may be the key ideas within the work.  Maybe a metaphor to autobiographical elements. Where there is trauma there is hope and hopefully lightness through creativity.

Scorch Earth Policy – 2019/2022 – oil, acrylic, oil bar, collage and aerosol on canvas – 178 x  168cm

And why Abstract Expressionism as a vehicle for your ideas?

I wouldn’t say abstract expressionism is a vehicle for my ideas. It’s a movement that is important to painting history and one that I certainly used to look at alot but I wouldnt say it’s a vehicle for my ideas today.  My ideas come from the making of the work. I think that’s what I’m getting at when I talk about the ‘life, death and rebirth of things’.

The act of being in the studio and making things creates its own environment, its own ideas and the work begins to make itself and speak for itself. I make things, some things survive, some get destroyed or ‘die’, but they get used for something else so in essence there is a rebirth or a life cycle of things. If anything, mortality, trauma and our concern for our environment are the vehicle for my ideas at the moment.

Working ‘abstractly’ is a mechanism which frees you, which connects you and disconnects you to/from the work if that makes sense. I certainly feel that there is an element which is endless to that process.

Although I have worked with figurative elements and landscape, for me that is all abstract too.

Blackshaw, Basil; Blue Landscape; Rotherham Heritage Services; www.artuk.org/artworks/blue-landscape-69385

Are there any artists which have influenced you?

Yes definitely. Contemporary artists such as Jonathan Lasker, Albert Oehlen, Katharina Grosse, Helen O’Leary, Olivia Bax, Jessica Stockholder and Julie Mehretu as well as some outsider artists like Jean Dubuffet .I would say the usual popular artists such as Picasso, Pollock, Lee Krasner would be in there, as well as Helen Frankenthaler, Rauchenberg, De Kooning, Elaine and Willem, Jasper Johns and Gorky were a huge influence. Irish artists such as Jack B Yeats, Rita Duffy, Dermot Seymour, Mainie Jellet, William Crozier, and Basil Blackshaw would be in there too.

What are you working on now?

I have a group show coming up with Gallery 545 at Island Arts Centre in Lisburn opening Septemnber 9th- which isn’t far away. I’m excited to show some sculptures which haven’t been shown alongside my paintings before- I’m keen to see them in a gallery space together and away from my overcrowded studio. Aside from that I have been working on plenty of drawings and some large, medium and small format paintings, not as many large as I would like to be committed to as I have parenting responsibilities to our 2 year old little girl Joni.   I’m enjoying working with a variety of materials which I can play around with as well; such as wood, concrete, steel, plaster, acrylic casts and clay.

This way of working allows a sense of discovery, experimentation and freedom which is positively affecting the way I approach painting on the traditional substrate of either canvas, fabrics or wood. There is an interesting conversation happening between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional which is something I’m developing.

See more of Ronan Bowes work here – www.ronanbowes.com

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