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Of Dust, An exhibition comprising 20 works

As Resident Artist in Drawing at the V&A, London, 2008-9, Bowen’s research resulted in Of Dust. This research developed through devising new ways of creating and exhibiting drawings to interrogate the museological dimensions of the state of flux while contributing to debates on the relationship between visual art and the multi-sensory nature of museum heritage, (as discussed during The Go-Between (Glamorgan University, 2009) and investigating the interpretive role of practitioners within the museum.

Bowen collaborated with experts at the V&A’s conservation studios to explore lacquer both as a drawing medium and in terms of its traditional function to illuminate dark interiors. Further research in the aesthetics of lacquer was carried out in Kyoto, whilst researchers at Tokyo National Museum supported the project through their expertise in folding teahouses.

The Japanese lacquer technique of maki-e (dusting powdered silver onto wet lacquer) was applied in groundbreaking ways to photographic and print processes. The project contributed to knowledge through new approaches to Far Eastern concepts of light, and traditional methods and materials within a museum context.“…the viewer is left uncertain as to whether her images are coming into being or in the process of fading: ” (Coldwell, Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective pp. 89-91). Contribution to knowledge was disseminated through V&A website; exhibition publication; international conference papers; exhibition of works nationally and internationally, including Jerwood Drawing Prize and Dust on the Mirror, Singapore.