Untitled
(2016)
Medium
marble
Measurements
174.1 × 99.5 cm diameter (overall)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters of Contemporary Art, Ruth Margaret Frances Houghton Bequest and NGV Foundation Patrons, 2017
© Courtesy the Artist and Ingleby, Edinburgh
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Jonathan Owen transforms existing objects, images and works of art. As part of the NGV Triennial Owen presents, Untitled, the artist’s largest and only life-size work to date, is a modified nineteenth-century marble statue of a nymph. Owen carved away sections of the figure’s torso dramatically to reveal a series of interlocking chain forms. Details of the original sculptor and title remain undisclosed to the viewer to deliberately complicate authorship and interpretation of the new work. The sculpture is recognisable as a figure, but semi-detached from itself, drawing attention to the material it is made from.