AOOA Residency — Bam Bowen

AOOA Residency 2026

Collages

mixed media/analog/digital/photography

Sculpture

liberosis

2026

chicken wire, canvas, concrete

During my time at AOOA, I lay in the pasture among the sheep. Surrounded by the rhythmic sound of their grazing and the steady chorus of birdsong, I felt a deep urge to be absorbed into the landscape—to simply exist, without action or expectation. In these moments, I imagined becoming rooted like a tree, allowing the grasses to overtake me, to rewild me back into the natural world.

This sculpture is a self-portrait of that desire.

The form includes intentional openings in its exterior, revealing the interior space. As grasses and flowers grow, they will pass through these gaps, extending the work into its environment and allowing nature to complete the piece. The absence of hands is deliberate. My hands are often engaged in doing, in making—but this work is about being. It is about stillness, presence, and the quiet merging of the self with the natural world..

onism

2026

chicken wire and morning glories

Working with the chicken wire as a sculptural material I am thinking about how our bodies become cages. Caged by our physical form, by gender, by societal expectations, by race, by religion, and by ourselves.

Chicken wire when used in practical ways is often for containment. This self portrait is a representation of that containment and breaking free of it. Flowers will grow up, through and out of it, blooming and expanding. Within us all there is this expensiveness that we need to release and let bloom.

As a child I often felt constrained by my assigned gender and the expectations it placed on me. I found my solace wandering through the woods, barefoot, sitting in the creek letting the water flow around me. This is where I felt held, embraced, limitless, able to be who I was/am.

I was raised by Mother Nature. She is in me.

In process