Atkinson Gallery, Millfield

3 September – 20 October 2012

Private View: Monday 3 September, 7-9pm

The Urban Wastelands Project

Day Bowman in collaboration with

Ian Knox – award-winning filmmaker and

TransGlobal Underground – multi-national music

group

Image: Weymouth / Portland I, Olympic Commission 2012

After a barnstorming entry into the West Country music and visual arts scene at the Frome Festival

last summer, The Urban Wastelands Project continued its UK tour to Dorchester Arts Centre and

Quay Arts I.O.W. The Atkinson Gallery is hosting this collaborative work (3 September – 20 October

2012) where visitors will be given the opportunity to view Bowman’s large gestural paintings alongside

a short film: Zone by Ian Knox with soundtrack by TransGlobal Underground.

The strength of Bowman’s imagery is immediate and accessible and designed to elicit a response

from gallery audiences unused to straightforward questioning on how we perceive society today. A

series of works on canvas invite us to enter an Edgeland’s vista of gasometers, abandoned water

pipes and barbed wire; smaller pieces from the series reference the shapes and forms of much post-

industrial architecture such as cooling towers, water towers and wasteland detritus.

Ian Knox’s film reflects the gritty landscapes alluded to in Bowman’s paintings where the journey

becomes a metaphor for mass transmigration: as Bowman says, ‘questioning our perception of place,

of memory and of transience’. Echoing these feelings is a collection of traditional songs of emigration,

exile and longing put through the radical machine and electronic beats that are the hallmark of

TransGlobal Underground. A live concert on Monday 3 September in the Atkinson Gallery will open

the exhibition that will allow the audience to experience the paintings, film and music as a complete

work.

Day Bowman studied at Chelsea School of Art and London University 1977 – 1980. Recent solo

exhibitions include Phoenix Arts Centre Exeter, The National Maritime Museum Falmouth, Sherborne

House and Dean Clough Gallery Halifax. Day is represented by Art First London and Jenny Blyth Fine

Art. Group exhibitions include Whitechapel Gallery London, Contemporary Arts Society, Royal

Academy Summer Show, The London Group and CUBE Manchester. Day’s work has received prizes

at the Dorchester Arts and Millfield Opens 2011.

A fully illustrated catalogue with a foreword by Mel Gooding and short essay by Jenny Blyth will be

available from the gallery throughout the exhibition.

Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Street, Somerset BA16 0YD UK

Tel: +44 (0)1458 444322

www.atkinsongallery.co.uk atkinsongallery@millfieldschool.com

If you would like further information on the project, contact details are listed below:

Day Bowman – painter www.daybowman.com (m. 07968 692 761)

Ian Knox – filmmaker www.ianknox (m. 07973 726 857)

TransGlobal Underground www.transglobalunderground.net