Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Deanna Bowen is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Raghed Charabaty.
Co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts and Kinophile Productions. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
I’m an interdisciplinary artist living in Toronto. I grew up in Vancouver, in the Downtown Eastside, and I’ve been here for the last twenty-five years.
I do work about my family and it’s very much caught up in their history, and telling our story, and honouring the very hard work that we have done to be here. Former slaves, all of them, but also former slaves that built their own towns, built their own schools, built their own churches.
The stories that I tell define the shape that the work takes. My family wasn’t particularly interested in talking. They certainly were much more careful about telling their stories in the early years. The absence of those images, the absence of that footage worked out to be the biggest breakthrough of my practice because it obliged me to figure out another way to tell a story.
There is a black Canadian audience that also is very hungry and keen to see itself. This experience of trying to be seen in Canada as a black person, I think, is something that is common with many people, and it resonates with a lot of different black peoples, and so they’re in there, too. I make work that makes it very difficult for people to deny the racism that I can see.
I feel like there are so many questions that I can’t afford to stop asking questions. I would worry if I wasn’t agitating. I would worry if I became complacent or too comfortable. I will keep doing this for as long as I can so that other people will feel comfortable in asking questions until we get the story right.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Deanna Bowen is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Raghed Charabaty.
Co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts and Kinophile Productions. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
I’m an interdisciplinary artist living in Toronto. I grew up in Vancouver, in the Downtown Eastside, and I’ve been here for the last twenty-five years.
I do work about my family and it’s very much caught up in their history, and telling our story, and honouring the very hard work that we have done to be here. Former slaves, all of them, but also former slaves that built their own towns, built their own schools, built their own churches.
The stories that I tell define the shape that the work takes. My family wasn’t particularly interested in talking. They certainly were much more careful about telling their stories in the early years. The absence of those images, the absence of that footage worked out to be the biggest breakthrough of my practice because it obliged me to figure out another way to tell a story.
There is a black Canadian audience that also is very hungry and keen to see itself. This experience of trying to be seen in Canada as a black person, I think, is something that is common with many people, and it resonates with a lot of different black peoples, and so they’re in there, too. I make work that makes it very difficult for people to deny the racism that I can see.
I feel like there are so many questions that I can’t afford to stop asking questions. I would worry if I wasn’t agitating. I would worry if I became complacent or too comfortable. I will keep doing this for as long as I can so that other people will feel comfortable in asking questions until we get the story right.
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
