on 5.972(2025)
NOTE: all works are in 4K, though compressed for various bandwidth play here.
Rencontres Internationales submission 2026
on 5.972×10^24 kg (Call/Response) Excerpts of a 11-minute installation (that loops). vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/share/b9e70307-44ee-4932-94b4-a8b45c611700?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Watch from 00:00 to 2 minute mark and then quickly scrub through as desired. Date: (2025)- this excerpt shows only a small collection of the insect archive "Fauna" that appears
in the installation. on 5.972×10^24 kg (call/response) documents the 10 year-long rewilding collaboration between myself and other species. It comprises four distinct sections that
surround the viewer. From left: "Day One (2011)", the first day I set foot upon the site; "Call/Response Site: Órbitas 2004/2023", a satellite diptych of the site in 2004 and 2023; "4383",
a macro mise-en-scène of the rehabilitated meadow as a continuous shot; and "Fauna", an massive archive of flora and fauna that repopulated the site. I purposefully combined hard rectilinear
and soft ovoid apertured videos: the rectilinear denoting the "before" and the soft apertured videos of "4383" and "Fauna" representing the "after."
on 5.972×10^24 kg (call/response)
(5.972×10^24 kg is the mass of Earth)
on 5.972×10^24 kg (call/response) is an installation that documents a collaboration with
other species. It comprises the following four distinct sections
that surround the viewer: (see below for more info on each work). It can be adapted to variety of room sizes and floorplans.
Details
To be seen directly in front of viewer upon entry:
Call/Response:, Órbitas
On the left of the dyptich Call/Response: Órbitas 2003/2023, the image shows the site of Órbitas, (The site was clearcut in the ~70's),
this satelite image is from in 2004, seven years before Fiona aquired the land in 2011. It shows slow and uncharacteristic flora having had it's topsoil washed
away during many rainy seasons.
On the right hand side, the same site is pictured from 2023 after a decade of careful soil restoration and observance of indigenous flora by the artist.
to the right:
a video of the 'before', showing the first day Fiona set foot on the land in 2011, just before she aquired it. It was inundated with invasive Giant Thatching Grass or
Jaragua (Hyparrhenia rufa) and devoid of other flora or fauna.
Giant Thatching Grass or Jaragua (Hyparrhenia rufa) is native to tropical and subtropical Africa. With some help, Fiona hand pulled all of the thatch grass (more than 1/2
an acre) that plagued the land and choked out indigenous flora and fauna. Thanks to bird and reptile droppings, soil rehabilitation, and after years of weeding the copious
sprouting thatch grass and encouraging native species, myriad plants slowly began to fill in the site, and the area was transformed into a verdent, diverse habitat.
the same area is seen in the video 4,383... a detail...in 2021 and in Fauna (see below).
4,383...
This is a micro shot of the same spot, now a repopulated meadow. It is presented in real-time, drawing attention to what is normally stepped upon, rather than paid close attention to.
4,383 is number of days between Fiona first setting foot on the land and the day Fiona had to leave her home (due to mold infected lungs). Orbitas is now under new stewards
who continue to protect and enhance habitat for the diverse species now calling it home.
On the south wall is Fauna
(it is positioned on the south wall so that when you walk in through a shore light tunnel, it is not immediatley seen). Fauna is a mosaic of looping video vignettes of the flora and fauna, mostly insects, that re-populated Orbitas
over the 11 year period that Bowie worked on restoration of the once-clear cut site. They are back-projected through ovoid screen portals
by micro projectors mounted on shelves behind a false wall.
The vignettes vary in length, some up to 5 minutes long with others compilations of short clips. Some are made up of live shots, while others
are made up of still images. Each live clip has diegetic sound marking the environs and any music, animal, bird or insect sounds when the
footage was captured, creating a micro cacophony of sound.
Examples of vignettes:
Examples of longer moving image vignettes:
Examples of shorter moving image vignettes:
An example of still image vignettes:
(you can see and read about the restoration project in more detail here: The Flats, here:
Plano Verde and here Orbitas)
Fauna
(2016-21)
Call/Response illustrates how quickly nature can bounce back when nutured and left to recover.
Fiona hand pulled (with some help) all of the thatch grass that plagued the land and choked out indigenous flora and fauna.
After years of work, pulling sprouting thatch grasses and encouraging native species that slowly began to grow (thanks to bird and reptile droppings,
and soil rehabilitation), the area was transformed into a verdent, diverse habitat.
You can see the before and after of the same area of the site to your left. On the left hand side, shows the first day Fiona set foot on the land. The right hand side 4,383... shows the same area in 2021.
Both and Response(2023),illustrates how quickly nature can bounce back
when nutured and left on its own to recover. (1+)Response: Orbitas is Bowie's record of her own year terra rehabilitation she undertook by collaborating with other organisms (from 2011-2022)
of her Órbitas project in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Fauna is a video compilation of the flora and fauna, mostly insects, that re-populated Orbitas over the 11 year period that Bowie worked on
restoration of the once-clear cut site.
(you can see and read more about the project here: The Flats, here: Plano Verde and here Orbitas)
FIONA BOWIE BIOGRAPHY
Fiona Bowie (we/they/us- a nod to multispēçiality) , b. K'emk'emeláy̓ (Vancouver).
Fiona is an interdisciplinary artist, musician/songwriter, and live and work on the stolen, unceded, ancestral and current territories
of the əəθkʷə̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵw̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and sə̓lil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. with acknowledgement
and support for their and all indigenous aeons-long nationhood, cultures, & all their relations.
Fiona variously employs photography, film, video, text, and sound to create immersive gallery installations, evolving public artworks and
web-based projects. Fiona's narrative and documentary approaches offer structural and spatial alternatives to ubiquitous and enduring
linear hierarchical narratives. Fiona has frequently designed, fabricated and assembled 360 degree/omni-directional projectors to
defy historical rectilinear framing habits of commercially available technology and innovated system design to relay temporal shifts
in her evolving public artworks. Gallery installations such as Swell(1995) and Faltering Repetition were created before immersive
systems were available for use by artists (at that time, the domain of Planetariums). Her lightweight, diminutive 360° or omni-directional
projectors produce immersive spaces while employing as little material as possible to realize them. Due to these work's individualized
mechanisms and optics, their dimensions are variable, fitting into various dimensions of space in which they may be installed.
Writing, archiving practice, and web-based interactive public participation portals such as Put Words in Our Mouths are strategies
Fiona employs to increase public access to her work and visibility of the subjects therein.
Fiona has also acted as a curator, and from 2014 to 2021 facilitated collaborations, projects, and research by artists, writers, and
curators at her Órbitas studio/residency in Costa Rica.
The subject content of her work is motivated by compassion and lifelong interests in physics and nature.
Fiona identifies as a multispēçial intermolecular being to normalize that, on a subatomic scale, there is structurally no
separation between us and everything else in existence. Respecting that all beings experience existence in their own way,
Fiona's works centre on interconnectivity and social equity with others and other life forms.
