Jonathan Owen Presents Acts of ‘Elegant Vandalism’ at KMB 2016

KOCHI:
A woman with no name sits perched on a pedestal in Pepper House to be gawked at. In another time, she was a marble beauty. Where once there was a face, she now wears a ball and chain. She remains, however, a work of art.
For Jonathan Owen, his sculpture – part of an ongoing series of works called ‘Untitled’ – is a look at how women are made prisoners of the beauty myth. But beyond this allusion, his removal of the facial features is intended to be a “rejuvenation” and “reactivation” of the work.
The Scottish artist is showcasing his brand of “elegant vandalism” at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016. Vandalism since his artistic interventions involve carving into existing artworks – the marble bust above was bid for at an auction – and takes away their names and histories.
In so doing, he inserts himself into their stories. This act of production by removal and reshaping is a “nerve-wracking” process, Owen said.
“I do think about the work and time put into the sculptures by their creators. Some of the works are centuries old and I reflect on this before working to recreate them. Though the figures are disjointed, I like to think I have transformed them into intriguing puzzles from the biographical objects they were meant to be,” Owen said.
The transformation of existing objects and images through his “two-dimensional
carving” method allows Owen to showcase both the systematic nature of his artistic process as well as his take on the intent of the sculpture’s original artist. The dimension of time is thus built-in to the artwork – hence his referring to them as “three-dimensional”.
“I leave behind traces of what had been. While the details of the torso such as the cross were kept intact, the head was made barely distinguishable. The figure was thus de-humanised and transformed into an unsolvable puzzle,” Owen said.
Similarly, Owen builds an alternate history with his ‘Eraser Drawing’ series – a collection of which line the walls of the enclosure that houses the marble bust described above. Taking an eraser and rubbing out figures and layers from original photographs and film stills, he leaves ghostly reminders of what was once there while presenting additional possibilities.
“Unlike the sculptures, I don’t add anything to the surface of the image. Making the decision on which feature or figure to remove or retain is mostly intuitive. It would be a breeze to do this with photo-editing software, but leaving some residue of this imperfect intervention is important too,” Owen said.