1 january - 31 january
ALL GALLERY

Summer Residency 2025

Caitlin Bowe
What are you now that I once was?

Statement 

If you want to know about a society you should look at how they treat their dead.

Adelaide is home to the West Terrace Cemetery, a reflection of the diversity of the people of Adelaide. Although the cemetery is home to a number of significant, and in their own right, monumental structures most of the cemetery is now left in a state of disrepair. Within my practice I have started to develop my own research into the idea that grief is an expression of love and the ways that funerary art exemplifies this. This area of research has also developed a questioning of modern approaches to grief and how they have been shaped by a consumerist society. With a specific interest in the way that the Victorians expressed grief through beautiful and labour intensive art and fashion I seek to morph the gallery into an immersive space, influenced by the West Terrace Cemetery, to start conversations about how we as a community address these difficult themes. 

Artist Bio

Caitlin Bowe is an early career artist based in Kaurna Country, Adelaide, South Australia. Working in the field of sculpture, Bowe utilises casting and textile techniques to explore themes of ancestral mythology, the gothic Victorian, and funerary arts.

Graduating from Adelaide Central School of Art with First Class Honours in 2017, Caitlin has continued to exhibit regularly and has received a number of grants and awards including a CARCLEW Fellowship. Bowe has also undertaken residencies including Studio Kura (Japan), Scottish Sculpture Workshop, and the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Children’s Art Space Residency.

Caitlin currently works from Switchboard Studio.