Born 1978, Glasgow. Lives and works in Glasgow.
Fowler’s work in film is concerned with the construction of ‘truth’ and mythology within documentary and with the formal, experimental and lyrical potential of 16mm film.  His recent film series ‘A Grammar for Listening’ (parts 1-3), 2009, took as its subject the politics of listening. The series of short 16mm sound films are a set of collaborations between international sound artists, each of whom have been fostering rigorous formal and conceptual approaches to the art of “field recording”. The film asserts, in its own visual and sonic terms,  that in failing to pay attention to the sonic experiences within our lives, we are not only promoting the visual over the sonic but are failing to appreciate the interconnectedness of sound between humans, wildlife and our blighted ecosystem.
This film builds on themes that were first established in his previous film ‘Bogman Palmjaguar’ (2007). The film is a portrait of its namesake,  a conservationist who was active in the 1970’s in the Flow Country in the far north of Scotland. Considered to be Europe’s largest expanse of blanket bog and home to a large variety of wildlife, the Flow Country has been a highly contested site since its damage by artificial drainage and the introduction of non-native forests, largely for profit motives. Bogman, who was diagnosed by the medical establishment as a paranoid schizophrenic, is currently fighting a legal case to have this diagnosis removed from his medical records. The film interweaves associations between Bogman’s mental state and the way we have treated the environment. In considering equally the limitless damage that can be created by both institutions and individuals. The way we have treated nature and the way we have treated each other become depressingly similar. In considering both at interlinked Fowler seeks to create a greater understanding of both problems.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011
‘Self with Other’, Upstairs at the Modern Institute, Glasgow
‘Pilgrimage from Scattered Points’, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
‘Luke Fowler and Toshiya Tsunoda: Ridges on the Horizontal Plane’, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
2010
‘Ways of Hearing’. IMO, Copenhagen
‘No.5’, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen
2009
‘A Grammar for Listening’, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow
Serpentine Gallery, London
‘”Warriors” Four Films by Luke Fowler’, X Initiative, New York
‘Cornelius Cardew’, CAC Bretigny, France
Selected Awards and Residencies
2010
Contemporary Art Society Annual Award
2008
Derek Jarman Award