Siân Bowen is a visual artist whose drawing-centred practice explores relationships between materiality, time, and place. After studying Fine Art in the UK, she spent four years in Japan having been awarded a Monbusho Scholarship. Siân’s projects often emerge from research in archives, archaeological sites and museums, investigating how fragile materials embody transformation. As Honorary Research Associate, Kew, her current work engages with the vulnerability and sustainability of plant life.
With QEST support, Siân will return to Japan for a bespoke programme of training. She will learn ancient plant-dyeing methods using akane (Japanese madder) and murasaki (purple gromwell) with Ichiro Sugimoto, and the endangered process of snow bleaching washi (Japanese handmade paper) with papermaking masters in Northern Japan.
These skills will inform Siân’s research into recreating traditional asehajiki, or paper under-kimonos, which have not been made for over a century. Her recent work in this area has already resulted in the successful production of a contemporary example, drawing on studies at Kew’s Economic Botany Collection. Her work is held in major collections including the V&A, British Museum, Boston Athenaeum, and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
