Scott Owen: Memory Palace

This suite of work developed when sculptures replaced humans in an interior space. Initially they were stand-ins for figures, creating figurative paintings without people actually being in them. The work took shape as figures representing ideas rather than embodying a person going about their business. The representations of figures are icons and memories both past and imagined.

Interiors show a landscape that has been created over time with items gathered intentionally and by happenstance. The items and the spaces themselves become landmarks within our memories, which we often move on from.  As time passes our ideas and ideals evolve and as a species with deep attachment to narrative we look to the past and find icons to bring back to life and place under a contemporary lens.

This brings to mind the memory enhancement technique where one creates a Memory Palace. A visualisation of familiar environments with significance placed in different areas to use association, improving recall. It seems like a suitable analogy for where culture is currently situated.

I like that the Memory Palace technique, also known as the Method of Loci, is a remnant of the teachings of Ancient Greece. I like it was rediscovered by the Ancient Romans and is again in use today.’ – Scott Owen 

Scott Owen (b. Darwin 1988) is a Sydney based artist who explores observational painting with a focus on colour and texture. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting at the National Art School Sydney in 2015, and was selected as a finalist in the Interior Art Prize 2024, the York Botanic Art Prize 2020 and the Eutick Memorial Still life Award in 2019. He works out of a painting studio above his favourite pub.

Opening night event 6-8pm Tuesday 4th of November.