Bank Street Gallery

rowan corkill

Rowan Corkill is a 22 year old artist living in Fife, just outside St. Andrews.  A recent graduate of Gray's School of Art (BA Hons in Photography and Electronic Media), he prefers not to be asked anything about cameras as "I wouldn't have a clue"!

Ever since seeing the work of Marcel Duchamp Joseph Cornell and Richard Rosenberg he was immediately fascinated by the use of everyday objects.  This became a  reoccuring aspect in his own work and whilst in second year at Gray's a vernacular photography project opened up the idea of using found pictres - artists Richard Prince and Christian Boltanski becoming huge influences.

"Whilst most spent their student loans on booze and clothes etc...I spent mine on old family photographs, army regimental images, post-mortem photos, taxidermy and pieces of strange old medical equipment, half of which I still don't know the use of!  This meant spending my days trailing through antique stores and junk shops, as well as using Ebay as a vital source!  This may seem like complete junk to most people but to me these are pieces of art in their own right.  When it comes to my work I often try to make small and simple alterations such as pocking eye holes into images or using collage to swap eyes in a  masked effect (notice the theme!).  Although simple, I often find these techniques to be the most effective creating thought provoking and sometimes quite beautiful images. 

Within my use of family images that I found I have been fascinated by the memories that are held within these types of images and the way in which they are lost when departed from their original owners.  On a less serious note, I also enjoy creating surreal collage works using Victorian pictorial archive images along with medical illustrations conjuring up strange creatures and faces similar to the eccentric works of Arcimboldo.  I love the freedom and randomness of chance that is created through collage as well as the lack of extreme theory and meaning (which is always nice!)"

In September Rowan will be studying for a Masters degree in Media Arts & Imaging at Duncan of Jordanstone where he will be concentrating on the use of sound art.  Recently he has been 'brushing up' on his painting and although he hasn't been collecting any strange things lately we're sure he'll be back soon!