Jowonder Founder
Jowonder is an artist, writer and curator, drawing on European and Indian mythology, science, and religion, and was a research Fellow in animation at the University of Bristol. In 2022 she curated 'Schrodinger's Cat' at the Bookery Gallerie, London, with guest speakers scientists and mathematicians; including Tom Crawford PhD in Fluid Dynamics at the University of Cambridge.
'I admire comics, fairy tales and religion for their ability to make digestible awkward truths, my work as an animator has evolved into a form of narrative painting. All is an attempt to connect with the unexplained and re-seek humility in the face of it.
Using an improvisational approach reflecting the processes of making my stop-frame animated films; collages build into narrative and animated figures.
When my first animated films were shown on television in the 1990's reaching thousands of people I was thrilled, it felt like the last frontier; we didn't have the internet in those days, and it was exciting to reach out past the walls of an art gallery.'
My visual art was selected twice for The New Contemporaries exhibition, in which I was also a prize winner. Selected exhibition: at Wellcome Collection, and District of Columbia Arts Centre USA, in 'The New Future' focusing on issues of science and space. 2019 a part of 'Dear Christine,' funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain, opening at Vane Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK, Elysium Gallery.
My avant-garde animated films have been screened internationally and on UK television; winning the Grand Prize at Zagreb International Festival of Animated Film, The Time Out Film Award, and Best Debute Animated Film at the British Film Awards, their stories noted by mythographer Marina Warner they are a part of the BFI Collection.'
Painting:-
2023- She was a part of the international contemporary survey of surrealism at the Crypt Gallery London. Showing 'Abduction of the Sleeping Prime Minister, and President's Breakfast, as well as smaller works.
2021 Apocalypse Biennale marking the 2021 cancelled Venice Biennale by celebrating the art of the Apocalypse: revisiting Albrecht Durer's 15th Century woodcuts and showing new work from contemporary European artists.
2020 - part of Dear Christine (a Tribute to Christine Keeler), Arthouse 1, London, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK. 2019 - The inaugural Wales Contemporary Exhibition, showcasing painting, drawing and original prints by national and international artists), Waterfront Gallery, Wales, UK Mall Galleries, London.
Installation and video work:
2007-'6 Days Goodbye Poems Of Ophelia' project. The project is a living painting in bacteria, a re-telling of the story of Ophelia's death depicted in John Everett Millais' oil painting; seeing her death as a form of beautiful transformation a return to the land. The work uses the movement of live bacteria for animation and was created in a sterile laboratory, (commissioned by The Wellcome Trust, science by Dr Simon Park), the poetic soundtracks to the animations, created by the public with some of the international poetry soundscapes are still in process.
2007 Flatlanders, an animated video installation premiered in Guildford Cathedral alongside a debate which included, herself and physicists Dr Brian Cox and Dr Jim al Khalili, 'Is Science The New Religion?' The work referenced the ancient Greek character of Themis, in connection with the launch of the epic experiment at CERN, incorporating sound taken from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.(thanks to Milton Mermikides for sounds).
Performance:-
2023 - as a part of the international exhibition of contemporary surrealism, "L'AGE D'ORE" at the Crypt Gallery London, 'Self Coronation of a Monkey. A satire of the royal coronation during the same weekend.
Jowonder And The Psychic Tea Leaves, an audience interactive performance in the manner of a mock Victorian Séance; using humour as a central device, incorporating improvisation. A chosen member of the audience drinks a cup of tea -and the process unravels. Some venues have been: St John on Bethnal Green, Cabaret Futura, Courtyard Theatre and End Of The Pier Show, live music chronologically thanks to: Billy Smith, Jowe Head, Ansuman Biswas and Andrew Hedges.
Erwin Schrodinger was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-Irish physicist who developed a thought experiment called "Schrodinger's cat" where because of the problem with depicting something as both a particle and a wave, he created the ironic story about a cat being both alive and dead.
Curatorial Bookery Gallery, London, Schrodinger's Cat 2022.
I curated an exhibition on the theme of Schrodinger’s Cat in 2022, which included 21 visual artists , and took place at the Bookery Gallerie, London; Made possible with the kind help, generosity, and advice of Rosemary Walbancke and Ron Briefel, for their gallery and invaluable input, and in part to an Institute of Physics (a Public Engagement Grant Scheme funded project 2019).
Digital Exhibition catalogue 'Schrodinger's Cat'(graphic design by D Kintsugi) please click image below to download/view PDF
'I admire comics, fairy tales and religion for their ability to make digestible awkward truths, my work as an animator has evolved into a form of narrative painting. All is an attempt to connect with the unexplained and re-seek humility in the face of it.
Using an improvisational approach reflecting the processes of making my stop-frame animated films; collages build into narrative and animated figures.
When my first animated films were shown on television in the 1990's reaching thousands of people I was thrilled, it felt like the last frontier; we didn't have the internet in those days, and it was exciting to reach out past the walls of an art gallery.'
My visual art was selected twice for The New Contemporaries exhibition, in which I was also a prize winner. Selected exhibition: at Wellcome Collection, and District of Columbia Arts Centre USA, in 'The New Future' focusing on issues of science and space. 2019 a part of 'Dear Christine,' funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain, opening at Vane Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK, Elysium Gallery.
My avant-garde animated films have been screened internationally and on UK television; winning the Grand Prize at Zagreb International Festival of Animated Film, The Time Out Film Award, and Best Debute Animated Film at the British Film Awards, their stories noted by mythographer Marina Warner they are a part of the BFI Collection.'
Painting:-
2023- She was a part of the international contemporary survey of surrealism at the Crypt Gallery London. Showing 'Abduction of the Sleeping Prime Minister, and President's Breakfast, as well as smaller works.
2021 Apocalypse Biennale marking the 2021 cancelled Venice Biennale by celebrating the art of the Apocalypse: revisiting Albrecht Durer's 15th Century woodcuts and showing new work from contemporary European artists.
2020 - part of Dear Christine (a Tribute to Christine Keeler), Arthouse 1, London, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK. 2019 - The inaugural Wales Contemporary Exhibition, showcasing painting, drawing and original prints by national and international artists), Waterfront Gallery, Wales, UK Mall Galleries, London.
Installation and video work:
2007-'6 Days Goodbye Poems Of Ophelia' project. The project is a living painting in bacteria, a re-telling of the story of Ophelia's death depicted in John Everett Millais' oil painting; seeing her death as a form of beautiful transformation a return to the land. The work uses the movement of live bacteria for animation and was created in a sterile laboratory, (commissioned by The Wellcome Trust, science by Dr Simon Park), the poetic soundtracks to the animations, created by the public with some of the international poetry soundscapes are still in process.
2007 Flatlanders, an animated video installation premiered in Guildford Cathedral alongside a debate which included, herself and physicists Dr Brian Cox and Dr Jim al Khalili, 'Is Science The New Religion?' The work referenced the ancient Greek character of Themis, in connection with the launch of the epic experiment at CERN, incorporating sound taken from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.(thanks to Milton Mermikides for sounds).
Performance:-
2023 - as a part of the international exhibition of contemporary surrealism, "L'AGE D'ORE" at the Crypt Gallery London, 'Self Coronation of a Monkey. A satire of the royal coronation during the same weekend.
Jowonder And The Psychic Tea Leaves, an audience interactive performance in the manner of a mock Victorian Séance; using humour as a central device, incorporating improvisation. A chosen member of the audience drinks a cup of tea -and the process unravels. Some venues have been: St John on Bethnal Green, Cabaret Futura, Courtyard Theatre and End Of The Pier Show, live music chronologically thanks to: Billy Smith, Jowe Head, Ansuman Biswas and Andrew Hedges.
Erwin Schrodinger was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-Irish physicist who developed a thought experiment called "Schrodinger's cat" where because of the problem with depicting something as both a particle and a wave, he created the ironic story about a cat being both alive and dead.
Curatorial Bookery Gallery, London, Schrodinger's Cat 2022.
I curated an exhibition on the theme of Schrodinger’s Cat in 2022, which included 21 visual artists , and took place at the Bookery Gallerie, London; Made possible with the kind help, generosity, and advice of Rosemary Walbancke and Ron Briefel, for their gallery and invaluable input, and in part to an Institute of Physics (a Public Engagement Grant Scheme funded project 2019).
Digital Exhibition catalogue 'Schrodinger's Cat'(graphic design by D Kintsugi) please click image below to download/view PDF
