TikiMiki
Like many cultures Tahitians strive to integrate the narrative of their past with the invasion of global popular culture. The Tiki has become a brand, a logo or an icon for Tahiti, in the same way as Mickey Mouse acts like a global ambassador for the pervasive soft power of Disney and the American dream. Its iconography transcends borders and continents.
TikiMiki represents this alliance between indigenous and popular culture.
EclectoMania
EclectoMania is my Cadavre Exquis of unlikely pairings.
Cultural collisions, appropriations and hijacks. Icons, masks, pre and post industrial, tribalism and globalism. Spiritual fetish and sexual fetish.
EclectoMania is a confused homage to my influences both looking backwards to the past and forwards to the creation of new possible tribes.
Photographs are ready-made paintings.
I walk the streets with open eyes and a repository of ideas and themes at the back of my mind.
The chance element I seek when painting is naturally present in street photography.
We just have to turn a corner, get lost and keep our eyes open in order to find a mirror for our thoughts.
The themes I explore in my paintings are reflected in what catches my eye as I travel and walk streets.
I have the impression we don’t ‘take’ photographs, we make them. They are created by the internal narratives we have going on in our heads. We see something ‘out there’ because it corresponds with themes, narratives, conversations already in process, consciously or unconsciously.
Street Photography
© garthbowden 2026