In Bowen’s Sadomasochism, brutal black-and-white North American urban imagery and texts are woven into a serene web of repeated colour shots of the artist’s unshod feet firmly imprinting on the sand of an island beach. It is as if a childhood and cultural memory is sustaining her in her negotiation of the other harsh voices and feelings in the work. There are other foot prints already in this allegorical sand – perhaps the ancestors that the narrator says she is both indebted to and moving beyond? (1) Sadomasochism, in Bowen’s hand, becomes much more than a game of power, it's a metaphor for the transcendence of self. (2) 

(1)   R of T, p. 150

(2)   Catalogue : Images Independent Film & Video Festival, 1999