|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Peter
Bowyer May 10 - September
15, 2000 flower looks both like the plant life for which it is named and the stylized lampposts familiar from the endless vistas of paved parking lots. In abstracting and collapsing these references, the work toys with expected scale. Larger than a typical flower, it remains smaller than the outdoor lamps to which it alludes. It stands, instead, as high as an average street lamp, bringing the work down to a humanizing scale. Over the course of the exhibition, Flower will weather and dull until it reaches the natural matte gray of the rest of the local infrastructure. flower highlights the splendor of a familiar urban form. Yet, while its reference is contemporary, its smooth seamless appearance evokes a futuristic sentiment. Like Bowyer's other sculptures, the form of flower has appeared in portions of the artist's drawings for several years. From a distance, the work flattens back to a drawn form, a silhouette against the surrounding greenery. The artist recognizes,
abstracts, refines and distills a portion of functional urban landscape.
It is a humanizing gesture toward a form that populates our environment
in prodigious numbers. Yet Bowyer's sculpture is not merely an emblematic
homage to urban design. It further reiterates a notion that beauty
is a matter of recognition. It often hides before us, in plain sight
and with virtual anonymity. Text by John Massier
|
 |
 |
