Field Day: Descent by Kevin Dowd Materials: Piece: Fuji Crystal Archive paper with a semi-matt finish, mounted on 2mm acid free, archival quality card. Size (H x W x D): 100 x 70 x 0 cm Year created: 2013
Over the next week FAD will be featuring Q&A’s with all the winners of The Signature Art Prize here we have Kevin Dowd winner of the photography category.
1.If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I think I might have been a scientist. It was one of my favourite areas of study in school, and there are a lot of links between science and art – both require observation. The sciences are exciting, challenging and probe the unknown, characteristics I try to incorporate into my own practice.
2. Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?
For several years I have trained in graphic communication and visual design, and through this I have gained a finer understanding of image, type, colour and space. Breaking away from the restrictions of commercial design, my artwork explores themes that I engage with as a practitioner and as an individual. The aesthetic of my first collection establishes my own predilections, and while I am drawn to particular mediums and styles, I also try to distance myself from what I’m comfortable working with. I’m currently working with glass, which is an unfamiliar material for me, and so I am excited by the possibilities of merging new ideas, media, styles and themes to generate something original and stimulating. The current collection, Technostalgia, explores several threads, such as the human experience, technological development, the hubris of man and the limitations of our world; the collection weaves these threads together to create a tapestry of arresting pieces and define a narrative. Beyond this collection, I examine themes of consciousness, humour, loss, difference, inversion and creation.
3. How do you start the process of making work?
Once an idea has formed, my process begins with gathering. I collect visual references, materials, and thoughts – before the piece can take form, the various components must be in place. This usually involves photographic and illustrative work, combining both when appropriate to create the intended visual. When everything has been collected, I organise them into respective folders to draw on when necessary. I find that this makes the final construction of the piece more fluid and organic.
4. Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
The viewer is primarily considered within my work. Each piece is an acknowledgment of some cultural or social trope, an idea that has taken root with most people, and subsequently explored through the visual. For example, World Service is a piece that responds to the continued fear that we are constantly monitored, but questions whether we have ourselves become Big Brother, with every iPhone a device for recording, photographing, posting and sharing. Once the theme is established, I attempt to convey that in as engaging and effective a manner as possible – and the efficacy of a piece is understood only through consideration of the viewer.
5. Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
Salvador Dali (Surrealist),
Wim Crouwel (Dutch typographer, designer),
Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari (of Toilet Paper Magazine):
each of these individuals has inspired, and continues to inspire, my work – unexpected, structured, abstract, colourful, tense and beautiful.
6. Is The Signature Art prize the first art prize you have won?
It is both the first major art prize I have entered and also the first I have won.. Beginner’s luck!
7. What are your plans for the rest of the year?
I plan to finish my doctorate this year – I am in my final year of study at Kingston University London, exploring practice-based methods in design research. I’m also expanding my art practice, and hope to produce some interesting work this summer.
8. Final question, if you had $49,000 to spend on an artist who would it be?
Am I allowed to say myself? I’m guessing not. As much as I would like something by the folks I mentioned above, I would probably spend it on local artists, sourcing work from art fairs or smaller exhibitions. I believe it’s good to champion undiscovered talent, and there’s so much of it in London. Plus, $49,000 would buy me a lot more work if it were from an unknown artist – more bang for your buck!
