Warm Fuzzies: Ashley Bowman

December 5, 2015 – March 13, 2016
Opening Reception: December 5
7-10PM

Three properly placed circles can represent eyes and a mouth in its purest, most simplistic form, conjuring in our minds the more complete face. People see faces in inanimate objects, from outlets and car headlights, to toast and knots in wood. There is often an urge to identify with these seemingly lifeless objects, a desire to perhaps animate them into being, attributing personalities to these inanimate forms.

Crafting large knit forms of yarn and pinning them to a wall, Ashley Bowman’s faces suspended in motion.    The works express tension – watching, jeering, and laughing from where they have been installed, yet remain quite simple in structural form.    Alienating and funny, these knitted faces draw the line between comfort and discomfort, animate and inanimate.    Equipped with large hands, pompoms, tassels, and fuzzy fur, they appeal to the longing for a connective-touch – yet repel our urges with their teeth, long nails, and chains.

Bowman’s works reflect the human paranoia, or perhaps current reality, that we are constantly being watched, judged and critiqued. Each object the artist has created in her exhibition  Warm Fuzzies  allows for quick judgments to form, but when time is allowed with each form, ones initial impression may begin to shift – from creepy to cute, tough to soft, fuzzy to rough.    It is a reality of our world, one that forces us into constant judging, an urge to identify, and the desire to connect.