Fiona Bowie facts for kids

Fiona Bowie is a Canadian artist who lives in Vancouver. She creates special art pieces called "installations." These are artworks that often fill a whole room or space, making you feel like you are part of them. She uses different things like film, video, photos, and sculptures to make these amazing art experiences.

About Fiona Bowie

Fiona Bowie studied art at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. After finishing her studies, she helped organize art shows at the Western Front Society from 1998 to 2000. She also edited a special book about their art shows.

From 2012 to 2020, Fiona Bowie started and ran a special place called Orbitas in Sámara, Costa Rica. This was a residency where artists and curators from all over the world could come to work on their art projects.

She was also a respected teacher at Emily Carr University, where she taught media arts to many students.

Public Artworks You Can See

Fiona Bowie has created several art pieces that are displayed in public places, so everyone can enjoy them.

Surface: Looking Under the Water

In 2010, Fiona Bowie started an ongoing art project called Surface. It's like a live documentary that shows what's happening underwater in False Creek in Vancouver.

False Creek is a small water area in the middle of Vancouver. It used to be full of sea life, but then it became very industrial. Now, it's slowly getting healthier, and you can see seabirds, herring, and other sea creatures there.

The Surface project uses a camera placed under an Aquabus. This is a small ferry that travels around False Creek. The camera sends live video using a special wireless network to a big LED screen. This screen is on the side of a building called Ocean Concrete, which is one of the last industrial places left on False Creek.

You can also watch the live video stream online at www.surfacer.ca. This means people can watch it from anywhere, and visitors to False Creek can even watch it on their phones as the Aquabus goes by.

Fiona Bowie wants Surface to show the real state of the underwater world. It's not meant to be like an aquarium or a glass-bottom boat ride. She chose False Creek to show how human actions affect marine life, similar to big problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the ocean. She says that the future of this artwork depends on what we do to protect the ocean.

Flow: A Changing Picture Story

Still from "Flow"

In 2009, Fiona Bowie's artwork "Flow" opened at the Civic Centre in Vancouver. This was the first permanent public art piece in the city that used video and photography.

"Flow" was created by Bowie with Sidney Fels, a computer scientist. It was asked for by the City of Vancouver. The artwork is always changing. It uses special computer programs to show hundreds of portraits (pictures of people) and landscapes (pictures of places) that Bowie took over four years.

The artwork is programmed so that people photographed at different times appear together, as if they are all there at once. Some of these people appear again and again, suggesting they are part of a bigger story.

Still from "Flow"

The landscapes used as backgrounds for these changing pictures were places that were changing themselves. These included building sites, empty lands, and historical photos of areas in Vancouver that were once forests. These areas are the traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

When you get close to the artwork, special "smart glass" makes parts of the image disappear. This happens as the glass changes from being see-through to clear. This makes the image break apart, and suddenly, the area around you becomes part of the art! This makes you feel like you are not just watching, but actually experiencing the art right then and there.

Another cool thing about "Flow" is how images change. It can take up to two minutes for one image to slowly fade away and another to appear. This creates a ghost-like effect as the clear pictures slowly disappear.

Still from "Flow", showing Smart glass activated by inside room use

"Flow" also has an online part where people can add their own words to images taken from the live artwork. These words include phrases written by Bowie and by music bands. Once people add words, the images and dialogue are saved online.

Website interaction from "Flow"

Gallery Artworks

Fiona Bowie also shows her art in galleries.

Still from "Sliphost"

In 2007, her artwork Sliphost (created in 2006) was shown in Vancouver and Victoria. This piece featured actor Alan Cumming playing two main roles. The curator, Candice Hopkins, said that Sliphost explores ideas about how we think, what we buy, beauty, and forgetting things. Fiona Bowie explained that Sliphost uses dark, funny humor to show how human actions and experiences are connected to life on Earth.

Still from "Sliphost"

Bowie has other artworks that she adds to over time, like "Phenotypes" (started in 2001). This artwork is like an ongoing story. Each year, she adds new parts to show how a home or neighborhood changes over time. Every time it's shown, she chooses which "chapters" or years of activity to display. Later shows of "Phenotypes" in 2004 and 2007 showed completely different stories, even though they were set in the same cul-de-sac (a street with only one way in and out).

Sedentary Manufacturer from "Sliphost"

In 2001, Bowie created "Faltering Repetition." This was a video and photo artwork that used a special 360-degree projector to create the background. It showed a chance conversation between two strangers at a traffic light. The sounds for the setting and the characters' dialogue were separate, like background music in a movie that the characters can't hear. Fiona Bowie has made several works using this idea, including 'deliverance' (1998), 'Phenotypes' (ongoing), 'Nature Morte' (2005), and 'Sliphost' (2006).

Music Projects

In 2008, Fiona Bowie started a music group called SLickerslacker with Jim Peers. They performed at art and music events. Before that, Bowie was the bass player, songwriter, and singer for a Vancouver band called Chopper from 2000 to 2007.

Art Exhibitions

Fiona Bowie's art has been shown in many places, including:

• Or Gallery in Vancouver, BC (2017)
• Western Gallery in Bellingham, Washington (2017)
• Libby Leshgold Gallery (2012)
• Pacific Cinematheque (2009)
• Open Space Gallery in Victoria (2007)
• Yukon Arts Centre Museum (2007)
• Western Front Society (2007)
• Belkin Satellite (2006)
• Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver (2006)
• New Media Symposium (2004)
• New Forms Festival (2004)
• Consolidated Works, Seattle, Washington (2002)
• Presentation House Gallery (2001)
• Vancouver Art Gallery (2001)
• A Prior Video-Salon in Brussels, Belgium (2000)
• Or Gallery (1998)
• grunt gallery (1996)
• A large installation as part of Tamto Misto - Five Vancouver Artists in Prague, Czech Republic (1995).

Publications and Reviews

• Mullen, Sean with Hsieh, Esther. Radio Interview of Fiona Bowie on Public Artwork Flow, 2009. Live radio interview December 2009, released for podcast on Rabble.ca, 2010 : [1]
• Keenlyside, Sarah. Surface, Documentary film on Fiona Bowie's Surface, 2009. released for broadcast on Knowledge Network, Air Canada, City of Vancouver
• Hiebert, Ted. "Fifth Iteration: Digital Dreams and Delusions", from Behind the Screen: Installation from the Interactive Future, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2008.ISSN 1865-0929 (Print) ISSN 1865-0937 (Online)[2]
• Randy Adams, Steve Gibson, Stefan Muller, eds. Transcisciplinary Digital Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2008.
• Cutler, Randy Lee. Vancouver Singular Plural Vancouver Art and Economies, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007.
• Burnham, Clint. Vancouver, Akimbo, March 29, 2007.
• Burnham, Clint. "Compelling Look at how Artists use Video". Vancouver Sun, June 29, 2006.
• New Forms, exhibition catalogue, 2004.
• Devuono, Frances. "Binocular Parallax at Consolidated Works," in Artweek, December, 2002.
• Hall, Emily. "A Tale of Two Cities." The Stranger, Seattle, September 26, 2002.
• Hackett, Regina. "Binocular Parallax." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 20, 2002.
• Turner,Micheal. "These Days". Art/Text, No. 75.,2001-2.
• Roy, Marina."These Days". Last Call Fall issue. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Publication.
• Turner, Michael. "These Days". Mix magazine 26.1 Fall, 2001.
• O'Brien, Melanie. "Mis.Com.". Last Call Summer issue,2001 . Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Publication.
• Henry, Karen. "Mis.Com.". Presentation House Exhibition Monograph, 2001.
• Green, Bethany. "Killing the Commute". ARTSCULTURE, 2000. Brock University Press.
• Mix magazine 26.1 summer 2000.
• Achong, Deanne. "deliverance", OR Gallery Monograph. 1998
• Sawyer, Carol. "swell". grunt Publication Monograph.1996 ISBN: 1-895329-27-2