Tente 2021

Editor: We’re looking at “Tente,” a mixed-media piece created in 2021 by Owen Gent. It strikes me as deeply introspective. The muted palette and solitary figures give it a somewhat melancholic feel. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The power here lies in the symbolic use of the landscape. Notice how the hills become almost anthropomorphic; a reclining figure, perhaps? The silhouette could suggest the sleeping giants of folklore or even the very land holding memory, trauma, and potential. Editor: I hadn't considered the landscape as a figure itself. The two people, one walking, the other standing still – what could that signify? Curator: Are they separate, or perhaps aspects of the same individual? The journey versus the moment of contemplation. The walker might embody action, the active pursuit, while the standing figure could be acceptance, awareness of place, or a facing of internal challenges. Note also that we find ourselves implicated. Look at the colour changes as symbolic emotional registers, deepening, from the horizon to where the image emerges toward the viewer: a landscape into which we may project our states of being. Editor: That's a fascinating perspective – seeing them as two sides of the same coin, and placing the viewer in their path! Curator: Exactly. Art often holds mirrors to our inner states and uses symbols of culture to give form to feeling, providing frameworks to know how people came before you. Editor: This has made me think about how we all carry our own internal landscapes, and the figures within them. Thanks, this was incredibly helpful! Curator: It was my pleasure, I learned something, too. Symbolism helps us decode what is lasting.