Angelika Knäpper Gallery is happy to present Vanna Bowles's first exhibition at the gallery.
She works with drawing, sculpture, animation and performance and often uses theatrical expression and allows the stage to work as a frame for her drawings and objects.
At the gallery she will show mechanical paper sculptures, drawings with and without relief and sculptural elements. She works actively with the room and stages her works with specific lights and shadows, which turns the exhibition into a collected, intimate and magical experience.
Vanna Bowles gathers most of her material from cinema and theatre. The motifs in her drawings usually come from film stills. Early shadow theatre and other pre-cinematic ways of creating moving images are also important sources of inspiration.
Vanna Bowles writes:
“I’ve gathered ideas from 18-th century image montages and perspective theatres and I am fascinated with their ways of finding simple solutions that creates a sense of magic and illusion.
I’m interested in interhuman situations, where something just happened or is about to happen. The aesthetics I use bares references to Victorianism and the bourgeoisie.
This can be seen as a metaphor for the superficial, of keeping up appearances and maintain an impeccable and spotless façade. The more impressive the appearance the less we see what lies behind and is hidden away. I want to give the beholder a feeling of that the façade is about to come down bit by bit, and that which has been banned from public life will slowly start to reveal itself. Like a short moment of chaos.
I often find motifs and stories to the pictures I create in situations where people have to maintain a controlled appearance and take part in a rigid social structure, where the roles are carefully played and the codes of conduct are strictly followed.
The animated sculptures are a sort of extension of my pictures and their motifs can often be found in my drawings. The mobile elements in the sculptures emphasize the fact that something is just about to happen, the scenes in my drawings are seconds away from coming to life and the characters can at any given moment start to move and step out in to our world.”
She works with drawing, sculpture, animation and performance and often uses theatrical expression and allows the stage to work as a frame for her drawings and objects.
At the gallery she will show mechanical paper sculptures, drawings with and without relief and sculptural elements. She works actively with the room and stages her works with specific lights and shadows, which turns the exhibition into a collected, intimate and magical experience.
Vanna Bowles gathers most of her material from cinema and theatre. The motifs in her drawings usually come from film stills. Early shadow theatre and other pre-cinematic ways of creating moving images are also important sources of inspiration.
Vanna Bowles writes:
“I’ve gathered ideas from 18-th century image montages and perspective theatres and I am fascinated with their ways of finding simple solutions that creates a sense of magic and illusion.
I’m interested in interhuman situations, where something just happened or is about to happen. The aesthetics I use bares references to Victorianism and the bourgeoisie.
This can be seen as a metaphor for the superficial, of keeping up appearances and maintain an impeccable and spotless façade. The more impressive the appearance the less we see what lies behind and is hidden away. I want to give the beholder a feeling of that the façade is about to come down bit by bit, and that which has been banned from public life will slowly start to reveal itself. Like a short moment of chaos.
I often find motifs and stories to the pictures I create in situations where people have to maintain a controlled appearance and take part in a rigid social structure, where the roles are carefully played and the codes of conduct are strictly followed.
The animated sculptures are a sort of extension of my pictures and their motifs can often be found in my drawings. The mobile elements in the sculptures emphasize the fact that something is just about to happen, the scenes in my drawings are seconds away from coming to life and the characters can at any given moment start to move and step out in to our world.”