melbourne written objective project

In Visible Cities – prints and drawings by Damon Kowarsky

For the past eight years the theme of the city has featured prominently in the work of Damon Kowarsky.

This is no surprise.

Most of us live in urban environments. In fact for the first time in history more than half the world’s population lives in cities and towns, and the number is expected to rise in coming decades[1].

For Kowarsky the city excites because of its collective and universal character and the great variety of its forms. These range from mud brick to steel but as all serve similar functions [to house us!] there are similarities despite the otherwise enormous differences in language and culture.

Thus friends in Pakistan commented that etchings of Mexico City reminded them of Lahore, and of memories of “sleeping outdoors on the roof on hot summer nights, wishing upon shooting stars and storytelling.”[2]

Kowarsky says, “it is these connections that interest me as much as the unique characteristics of each place – the local and the universal, the timeless and the specific.”

“Over time my interest in the city has changed. What began with images of traditional mud brick and stone housing inspired by travels in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia has moved steadily towards the modern metropolis and a technological future. Influences including Japanese anime and films like Bladerunner have found a place in my work. This progression is partly the result of practice. The modern city is complicated and requires patience and drawing skills I did not possess five years ago. It is also prompted by a desire to explore all areas of our architectural and urban environment. There is much that is unique and wondrous in the old but what we build today has many of the same qualities – if only we take the time to stop and look.”[3]

Yet if the reasons we live in cities – love, work, friendship, family, education, opportunity, escape – are clear so too is the paradox that lies at the heart of urban living.

The Pakistani writer and art historian Quddus Mirza writes that “displacement is the main theme for the artist who is living away from his home”[4], as it is for “a number of people in the metropolises today … who have moved from their homelands.”[5]

“The social setup of big cities – with minimum personal contact and huge crowds of unknown people swarming in the shopping malls, streets, parks and other urban places – aggravates the feeling of loneliness.

“In that sense, man rediscovers his self both in connection and confrontation with the city. [The] city assumes a great significance in the psyche of a citizen who perceives it as a combination of structures that are unknown, uninviting and unbearable. Perhaps, for him, roaming in the city is an experience not much dissimilar from moving in a desert, since in both places one tends to lose the sense of direction and gets an illusion of being lost.”[6]

Mirza is not the first to draw links between the city and the desert. Francis Bacon [1561-1626] wrote “Magna civitas, magna solitude“ [A great city, a great desert], making clear the parallels between these places. While Bacon insists that “in a great town friends are scattered; so that there is not that fellowship… which is in less neighborhoods”[7] for Kowarsky this is not always true.

“Cairo is one of those places where anything can happen, and where it is possible with patience and a smile to slip behind the scenes into a world that is exotic and full of surprises. After graduating from university I was determined to go back and so volunteered as an archaeological illustrator at Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt’s western desert. This lead to residencies at Townhouse Gallery in 2003 and 2009 and an ongoing love of the city and its people.

“Each time I go back it seems there is more to discover. On my last visit I spent days exploring 600 year old mosques, the crumbling ruins of a Mamluk hospital and the recently [and very beautifully] restored Darb al Ahmar district. The Agha Khan Foundation is doing amazing work both with the restoration and the social development of the surrounding neighbourhood.

“But the best and most wonderful thing about Cairo are the people. Friendly, hospitable, and always ready to share stories and a cup of tea. When I visited a favourite restaurant in Souq Tawfiqia the waiter looked at his watch and said ‘Four years’. And he was right. There are not many cities of 20 million where you will be greeted so warmly after being away so long.”[8]

The work in the exhibition In Visible Cities is based on Kowarsky’s time in Cairo, visits to cities including Damascus, Chicago, New York, and of course his home town of Melbourne, Australia.

By bringing together images of these cities – old and new, familiar and completely unknown – Kowarsky shows both the links that bind these places and the distinctive details that mark them as their own.

David Hagger, March 2011

David Hagger is a Melbourne based writer and curator. His projects can be seen online at www.blackartprojects.com.au