Meg Cowell

Cowell’s images connect the viewer with both the real and imagined rites of feminine transition and the creative realm of dream and fantasy. Themes of impermanence also emerge via the seemingly endless, inky blackness that envelops her forms. Inspired by period costume and the hidden meanings often associated with women’s status, life experiences and how they shroud themselves, ideas of mortality, youth and decay also surface.

I’ve been looking at elements common to those things considered beautiful in nature; proportion, symmetry clarity, harmony and colour. I like the idea that each garment has a mood and an emotion which can be representative of a feeling or state. I think an image is successful when it shows metamorphosis. Good images require a kind of imaginative collaboration from the viewer to interpret what they are seeing.
Artist Statement - Meg Cowell

'Cowell’s work is undoubtedly beautiful as any star-filled night, but within that beauty lies a subtle sense of menace. Somehow, as we gaze at the luminous glory of these delicate frocks, we feel uneasy - as though we might perhaps be looking at death in a ball gown. The works are lush with rococo splendour – the pastel satins of the gowns are trapped in an eternal, graceful dance. They are romantic images that call to mind candle-lit soirees of Belle Époque elegance; and yet the decadent silks begin to dissipate into smoke at their edges, becoming unreal, immaterial; like Cinderella’s carriage, the façade of beauty is a temporary glamour that quickly evaporates in the light of dawn - or in this case, into the infinite black void.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Eric Henshall 2020