Untitled 2008 - partially erased book page

Artist Jonathan Owen (Liverpool, England, born 1973)

Date2008

MediumPrinted book illustration altered by the artist

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsImage Size: 24 x 17cm
Paper Size: 28.5 x 21.5cm
Frame Size: 40.2 x 33.3 x 3.2cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 2009 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

LocationOn Display - Gallery 04

Object numberABDAG017075

Keywords

Tree

About MeBorn in Liverpool, Jonathan Owen graduated from the MFA course at Edinburgh College of Art in 2000. He is a significant figure in the contemporary art scene in Scotland and in his practice applies craft techniques to create cutting edge contemporary art.

This is one of a set of book plates which Owen removed from a book about public monuments. In what he describes as 'acts of careful vandalism', he reworked the prints, scraping out the image to 'erase' the monument but leaving some lines to reconstruct the background. Here the sculpture plinth is laid bare and trees are conjured-up from the printed image that was the the sculpture - they are not drawn in.

This inherently modest work could be seen to criticise the ethos of the large scale public art commission. 'But,' Owen claims, 'it's not an attack. It's part celebration, part love song'.

Exhibitions

Gallery 04 - Imagined Landscapes