Babs Gowan

Babs felt that the opportunity of being in the window would give her the space, time and focus she needed to experiment on some new work and develop her artistic practice in an exciting way. She had become fascinated by the insides of machines and parts of machines and had started collecting parts from old computers, phones, boilers; everyday technology that we take for granted yet depend on to function in our machine based world. She was interested in the paradox that technology helps us but also contributes to the climate crisis, which may in turn lead to our extinction. She called this work ‘Machine Parts’. Before coming into the window Babs had started to experiment with the idea in paint. She wanted to continue to explore this work in abstract painting during the residency. 

The process would be in two stages. The first will be a bold, action based paint application, including throwing, pouring, dripping and large brush strokes. Loose drawing marks and sgraffito will break up the paint fields. Some areas may be masked, some may be torn up and re-applied. There may be collaged areas, destroyed parts. She loved working in the no man’s land between creativity and destruction. The second stage of the process will be drawing into the painting with fine lines, inspired by close observation of the machine part selected. She envisioned the drawing of the machine parts will be scaled up, the lines technical and graphic in feel, to highlight the contrast between the technology inspired line and the natural flow of paint and loose line work. 

Babs felt that the residency would provide her with a four week period in which she could focus solely on this work and explore the ideas fully. She felt that the chance to experiment without having to produce a finished piece will inspire her to try new things and break new ground as an artist.