Techno-Gothic Fusion
By Corinna Lotz

The River Lea valley in north-east London has its own atmosphere. It is neither London nor suburbia. Industrial estates are interspersed with canals, marshes and reservoirs. Electricity pylons tower over green spaces, populated by birds and canal-boat dwellers who have their own lifestyle.

The bleak North Circular snakes across the valley past supermarkets, D-I-Y shopping centres, and a greyhound racing stadium. The decrepit and abandoned coexist with an intense concentration of human life and activity.

This is the urban landscape that surrounds Michael Bowdidge. He observes it and photographs the post-industrial relics around him. His “found images” become the starting point for a complex process of restructuring and composition using digital imaging software.

These digital paintings are aesthetically rich, at times disturbing “mindscapes”, full of mediated references to their origin in the world outside. The viewer is a participant in a journey to another aesthetic and emotional reality, along roads and tracks signposted by the artist.