Kate Owens
...photographer, artist, writer exploring mental health...
...works...
Me and the Black Dog
by Kate Owens & Neeta Madahar
The animation, Me and the Black Dog, comes from the personal perspectives of its two artists, Kate Owens and Neeta Madahar. Commissioned by the Foundation for Creative technology (FACT), Liverpool and Jacqui Davies Limited, it was made with the support of Arts Council England and FACT, Liverpool.
Me and the Black Dog was devised as both a single screen work and a complex installation where sections of the film play on several screens simultaneously in an installation space.
Me and the Black Dog, centres on cultural references within British folklore to ‘the black dog’ as a metaphor for dark, malevolent forces. For example, a Viking legend describes Black Shuck, a ghostly dog roaming the East Anglian countryside, as a portend of death. More recently, ‘the black dog’ has come to symbolise the human psyche’s darker aspects. Winston Churchill referred to his depression as ‘the black dog’ and singer/songwriter Nick Drake interweaved associations between ‘the black dog’ and black moods in his songs.
Me and the Black Dog explores these issues by depicting the interactions of a female protagonist and a giant black dog. The animation conveys how the unruly, dark element of one’s personality isn’t necessarily something to eradicate, but can be valued as an intrinsic part of oneself. Me and the Black Dog aims to challenge how mental illness is perceived, thereby lessening the shame that surrounds it.
In the film, the spoken text avoids a narrative structure - sentences collapse into repetition, rhyme and plays on words. The visuals are aesthetically similar to the 1970’s Roobarb and Custard cartoons, with crudely drawn, nebulous outlines emphasising uncertainty. Drawing inspiration from the old English saying, ‘A whistling woman and a crowing hen, bring the devil out of his den’, a tune whistled by a woman appears in the soundtrack.
Me and the Black Dog has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
28 Day Flower Diary
I began my 28 Day Flower Diary when I was at home looking after toddlers and a mother with early-onset dementia. The term housewife with its connotations of floral tablecloths & coffee mornings didn’t seem to describe my reality. Dealing with two children throwing tantrums and a mother in the wilder stages of Alzheimer’s brought confrontation, aggression and disintegration.
I wanted to create a piece of work, which on first impression seemed to illustrate the housewife stereotype, but on a closer reading revealed something of my reality. I wanted the work to help me connect with my past self.
Flower arranging seemed to be the perfect vehicle for this idea. Flowers are often seen as safe, pretty and friendly. They can also be wild, thorny and unpredictable. 17th Century flower paintings are viewed as great works of art by the Dutch masters. In the Victorian era, flower arranging like other women’s endeavours, was seen as a safe occupation to tame idle hands and minds. I wanted my flower arrangements to be less safe – more twisted – to reveal a less tame mind. I chose to create a diary combining bouquets of flowers and texts.
The work is a combination of 28 consecutive diary extracts, 28 bouquets of flowers arranged in Photoshop, and the titles and symbolic meanings of the flowers in each bouquet. The diary extracts, written several years ago, show a person constantly shifting and changing. The flowers and their meanings sometimes contradict and sometimes reinforce the texts – expressing feelings and character traits not immediately clear. The 28 images reflect the days of the menstrual cycle. The work is a multi-layered self-portrait, which reveals a complex and chaotic nature.
28 Day Flower Diary was exhibited at Flowers East, London, and Diemar & Noble, London and featured in the Sunday Times Magazine, other magazine and won a Rhubarb award.
About
Kate Owens is a writer/photographer/artist and florist. After desperately wishing her life become interesting at the age of fifteen, all turned to chaos. Her writing, photography and art has since been churned out in an attempt to restore some order.
Kate studied Film and Photography at the University of Wales, Newport and completed her Masters in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University. Her work encompasses photography, animation, drawing and writing, and broadly explores mental health. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in the US and the UK, including FACT, Liverpool and Flowers East, London.
Inspired by one of her projects, Kate set up as a flower grower and florist in 2014 and owns and runs Verdley Flowers in West Sussex.