About
Foraging for Toronto’s Lost Rivers explores the intersections of history, environmental awareness, and artistic representation, aiming to revitalise a sense of connection with Toronto’s lost waterways and their impact on the city’s evolution.
Lost Rivers
This series follows archived images of lost or altered waterways. The sites where the photos were first taken were found and used as a ground to paint the archive in an effort recontextualize our understanding of past and present.
The Foraging
My current work is created using an ink made from vinegar and water steeped in a slurry of crushed berries, leaves, and sticks collected at each site. It is neither permanent nor lightfast. In fact the ink is remarkably transparent and needs to be built up with successive layers. The use of ink derived from organic materials collected at each of the sites introduces a literal transfer of the environment into the artwork.
The Community
The original artworks are displayed at various locations near the sites they depict, including local cafes, shops, and other community spaces. When you visit a work you are within walking distance of finding the site it depicts. By shedding light on overlooked historic sites that are traversed daily, I hope these works prompt a reevaluation of our relationship with spaces and the broader urban ecosystem. Ideally it draws attention to the sometimes discordant relationship between urban development and the natural world, encouraging a reconsideration of sustainable coexistence.
Tollkeepers' Cottage Museum; (1916). Wychwood Park - General Creek Scene
The Experience
Completed for the thesis of my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Media and Design with OCADU, this project includes a gallery display. At OCADU visitors are invited to engage with colouring sheets on the walls using the foraged inks from each site. Takeaway maps guide visitors to the 17 original artworks displayed across the city.
Thesis Abstract
Over the past two years, I have delved into the Lost River Walks project, and related images and documents in the Toronto Archives. Through this investigation, my thesis explores the intersections of history, environmental awareness, and artistic representation, aiming to revitalise a sense of connection with Toronto’s lost waterways and their impact on the city’s evolution. Using tools like Google Lens and a variety of anecdotal, archival, and survey-based sources, I have identified 19 sites along 6 lost or altered waterways. Every artwork is an exploration, and every exploration is a passage through memory and time. By using ink sourced directly from the land itself, I have layered drawings onto photographs to create a multidimensional exploration of memory, history, and place that works to re-contextualize our understanding of past and present.