Austrian artist completes mission to find 200 women who share her name

FROM Austria to the Outer Hebrides a lady called Fiona has spent nearly a decade scouring Europe to meet women who share her name.

Fiona Rukschcio, 43, from Vienna, has travelled to every corner of Europe on a mission to photograph 200 Fionas.

She has managed to track them down at home in Austria, Germany, France and Italy even managing to bag a couple on a visit to China.

But the most fruitful of her expeditions have been to Scotland, where the name originates, which has proven to be a hotbed of Fionas.

After eight years of travels, which have cost her around £25,000, she photographed her final namesake Fiona Richmond, 44, in Glasgow, on Friday.

She said: “I decided to do it because I was interested in who the other Fionas are. It is not that common a name in Austria.

“I met all these people from different backgrounds, different areas and professions I have become friends with most of them.”

Artist Fiona plans to publish her 200 pictures as a book and hold an exhibition.

She asked all of the Fionas to wear black and pictured all of them against a black background, to create a “portrait gallery aesthetic”.

And while her address book is now jam-packed with friendly faces, her favourite memories have been made searching out her 60 Scottish Fionas.

“I really like Scotland and I would like to live here, so doing this project has given me a better opportunity to have a really good look at the country,” she said.

Fiona Rukschcio (R) and Fiona Richmond (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

Fiona has been chronicling her namesakes since 2007, and admits the toughest aspect of the challenge has been getting shy Fionas to pose.

“I bumped into a Fiona working in a shop in Stornoway,” she said.

“She said she wouldn’t have her picture taken. I came back the next day and she said no again, so I gave her my number and left. Then she phoned back and said she had another friend and they would both do it.

“I was already on the other side of the Isle of Lewis but I got a bus back to them which took two hours.”

The name Fiona has Scottish origins. According to the Oxford Dictionary of First Names, Fiona was first used by 18th Century writer James Macpherson in the Ossianic poems, which were supposedly translations from ancient Gaelic.

Fiona Richmond, a project manager at Scotland Food and Drink, who was photographed on Friday, said: “It’s fascinating and I’m looking forward to seeing how all these connections between us work out.”

Carole Hough, Professor of Onomastics (the study of names) at the University of Glasgow said: “Fiona is a Gaelic name, from the word fionn meaning ‘white, fair’, so it has traditionally been more common in Scotland.

“However, it is becoming less popular. In the list of top names given to baby girls last year, it was in joint 681st place, whereas 20 years ago it was at number 39.”