Artist Statement
February 17, 2022 

What My Practice is About 

In my practice I always come back to this simple question, my north star: 

 
“How can we live beautifully alongside representational media in every day life?” 

 
It is a question concerning technology, politics, work, philosophy, spirituality, and ultimately human aliveness. 

 
Our daily encounters with representational media go much deeper than simply hopping on Instagram or Tiktok or tuning into the news. We navigate the world through internalized media: things like inner-monologs, identities, daydreaming, and memories… spaces we can easily slip into for days and weeks at a time without realizing it, dissociating and forgetting life’s immediacy. 

 
I think that the heart of my practice as an artist and as a human being is the attempt to find my footing in the back and forth dance between life’s immediacy - of being present and alive to life as it is happening - and representational media’s interpositions. It is all about finding mobility and finding ways back for when we feel a bit lost.


My Work 

I approach my work from several angles. 

WINDOW/SCREENS 

My newest body of work in development, the WINDOW/SCREENS, use the motif of dandelion flowers and other poetic imagery to create a conversation about dreaming and longing through mood and gesture and negation. The paintings implicate the viewer’s embodiment with overlapping screens that create moiré patterns that shift with the movement of their body and gaze - an experience that can only be had in person. The warp and weft of the screens interact with photography and video capturing, bringing digital representation into the conversation. 

SCULPTURE 

In my sculptural works I approach these topics from a more conceptual angle, exploring our relationship to language and image. By conflating representational materiality with poetic objects and sonic installations, I create situations that invite the viewer to experience the inevitable failure of representational media to be convincing. 

TRADITIONAL PAINTINGS 

My traditional paintings are self-indulgent musings about my life and the world around me as I experience it - a kind of visual diary that shows how I can, as an artist, personally live as both a producer of media and as a human that strives for presence, embodiment, and immediacy in my everyday life.


Why? 

I think that there is a desperate need to find healthy ways to navigate internal and external media spaces without losing other vital parts of ourselves. For all the incredibly advanced technology at our disposal today, there seems to be, hand in hand, a danger for alienation, depression, and anxiety. In this age of globalization, pandemonium, and the ever looming push towards virtual realities, nuanced conversations about immediacy, presence, and negotiating our relationship with media are only going to become more relevant to feeling at home and alive in the world. 

My work evokes different pieces of resonance between myself and the viewer and this shared experience we have of being here at this particular time, trying to live the best we can.

- Christian Bowden