4th October 2012 - Meg Cowell

Meg Cowell’s artworks centre on the process of collecting and archiving discarded fabrics which she has found, usually in the form of bras and undergarments and then produces images representing feminine identity. Cowell has discovered that Adelaide, the city where she resides has proven to be a fertile hunting ground for such items.

“You would be amazed at what is discarded in the city on the weekend after a big party night. I find all sorts of things in trees, gutters and bins,” she says. 

Upon locating these items, Cowell breaths fresh life into these discarded objects and gives them a new-found identity to create remarkable images. Cowell’s description for her approach to the For Sacrum series was to arrange translucent fabrics onto a light box to generate the images out of a synthesis of digital applications and photography. Her single-minded focus for that series was to achieve balance, connection and symmetry. However, with her more recent body of work, To the Surface Part I and Part II, Cowell has dyed the items and then immersed them in water, individually photographing them. Cowell exhibited images from To the Surface Part I and Part II at AP Bond earlier this year and claims it is her greatest achievement thus far.  

“Getting a commercial gallery to exhibit my work is so exciting. Being able to count myself among really top Adelaide artists and be able to work and make a living as an artist is amazing.”

Approximately half of the images exhibited were smaller works that made use of found undergarments which explore the premise of feminine identity with the bras and underwear. The remaining were larger works  that featured theatre costumes, couture and wedding dresses which Cowell described as a ‘literal up-scaling’ where she explains a garment such as a wedding dress  symbolizes transition – stepping across the threshold.” Cowell’s inspiration and intention for her work is to delve into the concept of feminine identity and take a fresh approach where the foundations are rehashed and reworked. She finds inspiration from such artists as Deborah Paauwe with whom Cowell was fortunate enough to be paired through the mentorship program during her post-graduate work at the University of South Australia.

Cowell claims that growing up in Tasmania has also influenced her work as much of her images are influenced by elements of Tasmanian Gothic  which is a sub-genre born out of  its convict history. Artists such as Anne Macdonald photographs of funeral flowers against black backgrounds and their homage to the Vanities of the 17th century are a definite inspiration. A further motivation for Cowell is the prospect of travelling overseas to the ‘centre of couture’ if she can secure the Australia Council residency in Paris. For Cowell this would be a dream as she can barely begin to imagine the fabrics she might find on the streets of Paris.