Max Bowden grew up watching the television show Monkey, the live-action fantasy adventure series based on one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en published in the sixteenth century. It’s protagonist, Sun Wukong, was referred to as the ‘Handsome Monkey King’ and ‘Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal’. The latter moniker resonated with Bowden as she painted her latest body of work, weaving together a poetic reflection on the paradoxes of existence.
In particular, Bowden was interested in the Great Sage’s ongoing battles; the idea of so many powerful gods and creatures, scarred from the battle, caught between improving the self and helping the many. The artist saw this paradox unfolding around her. In contemporary society there are many ideas that swirl uncomfortably within the flux of the ‘I’, the ‘they’, and the ‘we’ – population expansion and healthcare, the wisdom of crowds and the knowledge of specialists, the joy of community and the depth of solitude.
Bowden found her metaphor for this paradox not in gods or deities, but in the trumpet lilies that abound at a local water system, Fogg Dam, found an hour’s drive from her hometown of Darwin. Each exquisite plant in a sea of many, demanded her attention, watching her like many Great Sages. This subject matter necessitated Bowden to focus on painting the whole as equal to the individual. Painting en plein air, the artist was also required to dance between action and contemplation, with weather from the heavens often interrupting her movements and reminding her that she and her pursuits are merely singular things in a grand ecosystem of many.
Rather than a negative experience, Bowden sees this humbling aspect of nature – and of painting – as encouraging. She reflects:
“I like seeing something complex and slowly pulling it apart into simple shapes that own a space only in relation to where all the other shapes are. It makes me feel more confident about the complexities and stressors in my life knowing that they only exist in relation to the way I perceive them, and that even though I feel alone, that I can’t be, because I belong in a space too and other shapes must be around me, interacting. Again, it comes back to the individual and the group, alone, but not alone. Everything is in this swell, moving together as much as separately.”
In The Many Great Sages, Kinda Equal to Heaven Max Bowden’s contemplative approach to painting and the paradoxes of existence flow upon the canvas in expressive marks. Lilies, beaches and urban streets articulate the artist’s pursuit to capture life in its complexities and simplicities – another paradox. Through painting, Bowden finds a way to replay life slowly and see it all moving together.
Max Bowden was born in Melbourne, Australia, and now lives and works in Darwin. She studied visual arts at the Central School of Art in Adelaide, receiving the school’s first scholarship. Bowden holds a Bachelor of Visual arts from Charles Darwin University and a Postgraduate Degree in Psychology. In 2022 Bowden was named a finalist in Hadley’s Art Prize.
