Owen
McAteer

Is geometry a constraint or a freedom for you — and has that answer ever changed?

A lot of creativity can be found within abstract constraints, especially in geometry structures and its mathematics. But then again, in art rules are meant to be pushed and broken.

Walk us through your process — where does a piece begin, and how do you know it's finished?

I often start with a vague idea or mental image, a little unsure of what exactly it is or is going to be. As I work, it starts to become something real, never quite as I originally imagined but always keeping the original idea at its core. I then start adding to it, changing, reworking and pushing it as far as I can until I’ve gone too far. Finally I start working backwards, stripping away everything that doesn’t align with the core concept. Trying to get back to something more minimal, that is all it needs to be and nothing more, while keeping a hint of what it became throughout the process.

Is there something outside of art — a system, structure, or phenomenon — that quietly shapes how you think about form?

Time and higher spatial dimensions. What does the 4th spatial look like/feel like? How can we imagine or understand something completely outside of our physical limits of understanding?

What does a viewer miss when they see your work as 'just geometry'?

The mathematics that create the geometric forms are themself the geometry. Different perspectives of the same work.

Describe a failure or a dead end in your practice — something that didn't work.

I’ve had plenty of failures, but, if you’re lucky, a failure can be an unexpected success. Looking for the unexpected beauty in mistakes helps me make something I could never have imagined myself. I need to “play” and "experiment" towards failure to find something I could never have foreseen by myself.