MEOWER TOWER

Elizabeth Meggs
2 min readDec 12, 2021

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Notions of Absurdity

A silhouette form of a water tower, with a red to aqua gradient, is photomontaged with a photograph of a cat so that the cat’s feet align with the feet of the water tower, and the cat’s tail is coming off the back of the tower. The cat’s face is on the main body of the water tower, with ears wising out of the top of the structure. The cat is white, and striped, with turquoise color accents. The background is a simple color gradient from yellow to magenta.
“Meower Tower”, mixed media, 11" x 17", 2021, Elizabeth Meggs (Image courtesy the author)

Arts Gowanus is a not-for-profit organization that does a great deal to support and advocate for artists in Brooklyn, New York. The logo for Arts Gowanus includes a water tower. Inspired by mail art and exquisite corpse happenings, this group launched an exhibit titled “The Tower”, in which all artists created an artwork from the image of one of the iconic water towers that are seen on rooftops across Brooklyn. The only rules of the exhibition for artists were size (11" by 17" in portrait orientation), and that part of an image of a water tower must be included in the piece.

For the piece I submitted to this exhibit, titled “Meower Tower”, I was inspired by the unexpected juxtapositions in photomontages done by Dada artists such as Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, and John Heartfield. My cat agreed to allow his likeness to be part of this work, because he aligns with Dada notions of absurdity, absolute freedom, innovation, and rebellion.

“Meower Tower” will be on exhibit and available, with proceeds of the sale benefiting Arts Gowanus, at Saint Mark’s Project Gallery, 84 Saint Marks Place, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, on December 17, 2021, from 7 to 10 pm. — PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID CONCERNS. IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE.

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Elizabeth Meggs
Elizabeth Meggs

Written by Elizabeth Meggs

Elizabeth Meggs is a Brooklyn-based artist, designer, and writer. BFA: Virginia Commonwealth University; MFA: Pratt Institute

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