The Designer Maker

Shannon Gowen

Shannon Gowen – Portals of Misconception

Shannon Gowen is an artist based out of Austin, Texas, who utilises textiles in her mixed-media installations. Gowen is a versatile artist, who is adept at design and photography in addition to her fine art endeavours.

Her site-specific installation “Portals of Misconception,” a collaboration with carpenterAldon Mines, challenges many concepts of what sculpture is, blending traditional barriers. The work forces the viewer to connect seemingly unrelated scenes, so that each experience is truly individual, and of course, each is not truly correct. “Portals” builds upon the human experience and shows how people’s individual conceptions of everything in life are skewed based upon their lives.

Shannon Gowen – Portals of Misconception (detail)

Her work often centres around the concept of the individual mind, with its truth and belonging. Her astoundingly intricate piece, “Memories of Calhoun County” does this especially well, with a farmhouse interior covered in the pages of books, an overturned bathtub, and an imprinted shadow of two figures sitting together. The work powerfully shows how memory is both intense and flawed, and that after long periods of time, memory is the only place that continues to hold truth.

I felt truly inspired by this piece of work and feel that it bounces of my ice theme pretty well. Although the subject matter is different I think the look can be translated. The geometric shapes remind me of my sketchbook drawing:

This piece of contemporary art will definitely be something to consider when producing my main exhibition piece.