Kate-Bowe O’Brien

Megan Conery

Glass has the ability to magnify, refract, reflect and distort. Using Free-blown lenses and slumped float glass photographer Kate-Bowe O’Brien’s practice has evolved in parallel with her explorations of this malleable medium.
Her photographic background, a scientific curiousity into demystifying the lens and the inaccessiblity of lens technology prompted O’Brien to ultimately make her own – since then free blown lenses and slumped float glass have been integreated into her photography, video and installation work.

O’Brien’s Shadowscapes are reminiscent of abstract landscapes. Each photograph is an imagined topography. By shooting light directly through the slumped float glass each imperfection, every bubble acts as a minute lens – difractions and reflections seep onto the photographic paper creating stretches of abstract scenery. The clusters of light and shadow are manipulated alluding to apacolyptic panoramas.

Her ‘projection devices’ involve a basic projector, a mirror ball motor and custom made lenses. Each lens was blown by Glass Technician Ingrid Phillips at Edinburgh College of Art to O’Brien’s playful specifications.
In ‘projection devices’ the basic elements of the projector are exposed for the viewer providing access to the mechanics of O’Brien’s process. Images projected through the lenses create a unique distortion. This rudimentary projector is a hark back to the 19^th century fascination with the spectacle and a desire to understand illusions.

Upcoming exhibitions:
Avenue Festival – Waterford, Ireland – 11 July – 28 July 2013
Leave the Capital: The Fleming Collection – London, England – 15 October – 16 November 2013
Kate-Bowe O’Brien graduated from MFA in Contemporary Art: Photography at ECA this summer.
Kate’s work can be viewed online at kateboweobrien.com