Sean McDowell

The Repositioning of an Object that Once Functioned

5

October 2017

5

Oct

2017

20

Oct 2017

The Repositioning of an Object that Once Functioned

Sean McDowell

5

October 2017

5

October

2017

20

October 2017

Sean McDowell’s exhibition The Repositioning of Objects that Once Functioned can be seen as an exploration of materiality, drawing on actions of fitting things together. Although the forms employed in the artwork reference other functional structures and everyday objects, the artwork is located in a place between representation and abstraction. The display structure that supports the sculpture is elevated at human scale, thus allowing for a close inspection that asks the viewer to scrutinise the proficiency of its finish. While playing with the expectation of materials, the artwork also deals with formal qualities of arrangement, colour, surface and form.

Sean McDowell’s exhibition The Repositioning of Objects that Once Functioned can be seen as an exploration of materiality, drawing on actions of fitting things together. Although the forms employed in the artwork reference other functional structures and everyday objects, the artwork is located in a place between representation and abstraction. The display structure that supports the sculpture is elevated at human scale, thus allowing for a close inspection that asks the viewer to scrutinise the proficiency of its finish. While playing with the expectation of materials, the artwork also deals with formal qualities of arrangement, colour, surface and form.

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Sean McDowell

I’m an emerging German-born artist based in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia. Working primarily across painting, sculpture and exhibition-making, my practice explores interests ranging from psychology, fractal geometry and neuroscience to biology, microscopy, museology and spirituality. I also draw on art historical narratives and autobiographical elements relating to live experiences with disability and trauma. The act of collecting lies at the heart of my practice, where I draw on found and bought materials as the point of departure.Driven by a deep, ongoing engagement with materials and fabrication processes, my work re-interprets new, multi-layered pathways between things. Through a series of actions, the subject matter is often re-contextualised as a way of challenging its’ pre-existing framework, while allowing the potential for different interpretations and connections to arise. By shifting the viewers perception and questioning their associations to the work, I am interested in the blurring of imagery that occurs between representation and abstraction – observation and the imagination. In 2020, I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Tessa Laird. Selected solo exhibition include Organisms, Five Walls, In the day I dream of faraway places, Kingston Arts Centre, The Staging of Actions Past, St Francis, Selected Works, Rubicon ARI and Cuprum, Cuprum, Kings Artist Run. I have been included in group exhibitions including From Heart & Mind, The Dax Centre, Extended Gestures Extended, Five Walls, and Group Conversations: Australia’s Shame, George Paton Gallery. In 2018, I was the recipient of the Perrin Sculpture Foundry Award and have been shortlisted for numerous prizes, including The 2017 Mary and Lou Senini Student Art Award, McClelland Gallery, the 2018 Footscray Tertiary Art Price and the 2019 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Fellowship at Margaret Lawrence Gallery.I was the recipient of a Kingston Arts Grant and City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grant in 2020, as well as a City of Yarra Small Projects Grant in 2022. Last year I was selected to take part in the CAVES Guest Curator Program, where I presented a curatorial project titled Shifting Forces. I am currently one of seven artists taking part in the 2023 Billilla Studio Residency Program through Bayside City Council. My work is held in public, private and corporate collections throughout Australia, and internationally in USA, Singapore, Germany and The Netherlands.