Jude Cowan Montague

Jude Cowan Montague is a British artist, writer, composer, film historian, poet and broadcaster. She was born in Manchester, grew up in Bolton and lives and works in London.

Education

Cowan Montague graduated with a first from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University. She has a PhD In Film History and in 2013 acquired an MA in Fine Art from Camberwell School of Arts (now known as Camberwell College of Arts).^[1]

Music

Cowan Montague is a controversial songwriter, whose work divides critics. Her folk-cabaret album Doodlebug Alley was described as having 'a Marmite-like quality - you'll either love it or hate it'.^[2] She has released two LPs on Richard Sanderson's Linear Obsessional label. The second, 'Winter Hill Sings' was the first physical release of the cult netlabel and sold out straight away.^[3] In 2015 Disco Fair and Folkwit Records co-released the LP 'The Leidenfrost Effect' by Jude C. Montague and the Dutch composer and producer Wim Oudijk, a record praised by one music journalist as 'compulsive listening' while also describing it as 'wilfully idiosyncratic and determinedly strange'.^[4] Her one-woman theatre shows utilize simple musical features.^[5]

Broadcasting

She is the founder and curator of 'The News Agents' a weekly show on Resonance FM whose tagline is 'where news meets arts'.^[6] The show began to air in January 2014 and went to a second series in January 2015, going out weekly on Saturdays at 2.30pm-3.30pm GMT/BST. The show encourages artists to volunteer new work from artists for the show.^[7] One of the resulting pieces is Bruce Hamilton's 'Hennecker's Ditch Fantasy' an acousmatic text-sound composition based on a poem by Katharine Kilalea.^[8][9] Cowan Montague won the inaugural John Turner Prize with her essay 'Women at Work for War! Women at Work for the things of Peace'. The work considers the representation of women in the British propaganda newsreel, Indian News Parade, which ran in India 1943-1946.^[10] While working as an archivist for Reuters Television News she began to write poetry and her first collection of poems about international news agency stories in 2008 was the subject of an interview with anchorman Jon Snow for a Reuters Television News report in 2011.^[11]

Poetry

Her first collection of poems, 'For the Messengers' (Donut Press, 2011) was conceived and written while working for the Thomson Reuters news agency as an archivist.^[12] In her preface she wrote 'My daily viewing now included content such as the immediate aftermath of disasters and bombings ... It felt a natural step to try to process my response to this work by writing; and poetry, for me, was the best medium. My writing quickly became a habit, almost a compulsion, quite possibly a therapy.' ^[13] Her second collection of prints and poems is about a visit to a Mauritian family in Port Louis, 'The Groodoyals of Terre Rouge' has been summarized as 'a colourful travelogue' and extracts of prints and poems featured as a mini project in the art blog 'Very Small Kitchen'.^{[14] [15]} She has had work published in poetry magazines internationally and is currently editing an anthology of news poetry. ^{[16] [17] [18]}

Art

Cowan Montague is a graduate of the Camberwell School of Arts and winner of the Gwen May RE Award from the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 2013.^[6] She creates large intaglio based monoprints. She says, 'I create worlds in which the viewer's imagination can roam; floating characters through my landscapes carry out secretive and subversive actions.'^[19] She exhibits internationally and in London's underground art community and is a featured artist with Lab451London.^[20][21][22]

Works

• For the Messengers, Donut Press, 2011 ISBN 9780956644510
• The Groodoyals of Terre Rouge, Dark windows Press, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9571644-8-2

Discography

• The Leidenfrost Effect (2015, LP, Folkwit Records)
• Cairo Compression (2015, LP, Linear Obsessional)
• Winter Hill Sings (2013, EP, Linear Obsessional)
• Barbie and Ken (2013, EP, Folkwit Records)
• Bukittinggi Tales (2011, EP, Linear Obsessional)
• Lamb & Tyger (2011, LP, Ah Sunflower!)
• Doodlebug Alley (2010, LP, Jude Cowan)
• To America (2000, LP, Jude Cowan)

References

External links

• Jude Cowan Montague homepage
• Resonance FM
• Lab451london.com