From The Lotus-Eaters
In his latest show of all new work, titled The Lotus-Eaters, Jeff Cowen is exploring complicated ideas with repetition of images, variations on repetitions, double-takes, positives and negatives, organic growth and multiplicity of similar things that are each different and unique yet part of a species or sub-species. Repeating patterns of dots often arise, as do patterns of flowers, leaves, branches and weeds. We see eyes going astray, eyes open and closed, caught between wakefulness and dreaming, veils and shadows.
The artwork is abundant with markings: in the settings, on the models, markings on the surface of the print. Scratches, burns, spills, and bits of chaotic randomness flow out here and there over the print and into the edges. Sometimes the edges seem to have more information or gesture than the original photographic negative, hinting perhaps at a mutation of DNA in the evolution of photography. There is a violence here and melancholy, but also I think, a profound intuitive sense and understanding of what pumps so powerfully below the surface of things at all times.
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