Small Soundpiece

Wallpaper appeals because of its association with place, but also because Bowen can work with the design already printed on the paper. Wallpaper is also characterised by traces of the passage of time - fading or flaking pigment, water-staining, or holes resulting from acidity in the paper itself, and so on. These changes are the kind of indoor equivalent of the 'natural' outdoor processes she often subjects her papers to - during a residency in Grizedale Forest for example she buried them for days at a time, or left them exposed to insects and other animals to leave their marks.

For Bowen, drawing is her primary medium - this is not a preparatory drawing for painting or a work in some other medium. This is drawing as an end in itself. It has a characteristic immediacy and sense of intimacy that comes from using simple everyday materials that bear the marks of being handled, used, and worn through. This drawing is an excellent example of Bowen's practice of using drawing to explore the nature of materials, and the organic processes of change and deterioration.