Jonathan Owen

About

He is interested in making by reducing and removing, and in the controlled collapse of existing objects as a method of production and reactivation. His sculptures begin as relics of another time: 19th Century marble statues and busts that he re-carves into disjointed, re-invigorated versions of their original selves. While delicately examining the essential qualities of what was formerly there, Owen skilfully presents the viewer with a curious and unexpected new form.

Owen’s Eraser Drawings, made using found book pages  can be considered as carvings in two dimensions. Most recently these have been drawn from publications of cinema history; film-stills, portraits of stars or documentary images on-set. In painstakingly erasing the foreground figures he creates a new narrative, leaving a ghostly echo of what was there before. This presentation accompanies and contextualises Owen’s public artwork for the nearby Burns Monument, commissioned Edinburgh Art Festival 2016. A new monograph with texts by Sorcha Carey and Maria Fusco will be published to coincide with this presentation.