Meg Cowell’s large-scale photographic works depict theatrical, nostalgic garments, arranged and illuminated from within a large body of water. Using water as a medium of buoyancy and illusionistic display, Cowell aims to generate a sense of the garments being ‘inhabited’ not only by their absent wearer, but also by a complex of moods and emotions.  The physical act of fashioning these inanimate subjects motivates her engagement with the nature of ‘absence’ and the use of fabric and clothing as a medium of visual and personal expression.

Cowell’s images connect the viewer with both the real and imagined rites of feminine transition and the creative realm of dream and fantasy. Themes of impermanence also emerge via the seemingly endless, inky blackness that envelops her forms. Inspired by period costume and the hidden meanings often associated with women’s status, life experiences and how they shroud themselves, ideas of mortality, youth and decay also surface.

‘I’ve been looking at elements common to those things considered beautiful in nature; proportion, symmetry, clarity, harmony and colour. I like the idea that each garment has a mood and an emotion which can be representative of a feeling or state. I think an image is successful when it shows metamorphosis. Good images require a kind of imaginative collaboration from the viewer to interpret what they are seeing.’