Review: Coming of Age by Courtney Trowman
Originally written in July 2019.
Courtney Trowman’s Coming of Age is an interactive, colorful piece with a positive tone. Viewers can use their hands to turn the 2-foot tall, wooden rectangle that sits on a platform at eye level.
The entire piece is painted a light blue-gray color; on top of this color, viewers can observe bright colors, paint splatters, and other symbols to suggest the artist’s memory of growth into adulthood, and possibly her perspective as it continues today. The piece brings together visual representations of change and growth, including reflection, love, and connection.
A reflective material hangs in the center of this piece from string. On the bottom half of one side of this reflective material is part of an incomplete crossword, including the words, “you,” “be,” “courageous,” “trust,” and “flow.” Each of the words are written in all capital letters in ink.
The other side of the reflective material is entirely blank, which particularly makes an orange and white skull on the piece stand out. This reflective piece inside an artwork that already turns in its entirety is a tangible example of the ever-changing perspectives and ideas one goes through in adolescence.
Trowman’s frequent use of the word “love” is found on this piece in quotations and on stickers. This is meant to represent the love necessary for growth and change in life. The flowers, intermittent floral patterns, and piece of grass also suggest natural growth; it is just as natural for people to grow as it is for these plants.
The puzzle pieces, all disconnected, seem to represent the disconnect felt by many people during this time of continuous change in our lives. Though it appears each puzzle piece could be connected, they are left separated.
Trowman, a Savannah-based artist, created this piece in 2018 with the experience of a southern female adolescence in mind: a combination of excitement and struggle. This is also where I found my personal connection with this piece.
However, I feel the overall theme of the piece is relevant to many people, as it brings together the common aspects of adolescence; Trowman reminds us we all need reflection, love, and connection for change within ourselves, as well as in the world.
This message is necessary at a time where change and growth feel not only stunted, but often reversing. When many in the world are interested in reverting to a previous state of existence, Trowman’s creation of this piece in the current time period serves as a reminder that these developments are natural to us not only as individuals, but also as a global community.
Trowman’s piece was included in the “Home” exhibition, which ran from June 27 to July 6, 2019 at Sulfur Studios on Bull Street. This piece was the only in the exhibition not located on the wall, which made it stand out and invited viewers to interact with it. Each piece was created or selected by the studio’s member artists in response to a prompt, which was to be reflective on their perspective of home, or lack thereof.
