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. Ink sourced directly from the land is painted onto photographs to create a multidimensional exploration of memory, history, and place that works to recontextualize our understanding of past and present. Through reintroducing foraged materials found at each site, the exhibition reinforces the connection between land, memory, and human experience.
Visitors are invited to engage with colouring sheets on the walls using the inks, introducing a direct transfer of the environment into the artwork. Takeaway maps guide visitors to the 17 original artworks displayed across the city, near the depicted sites in community spaces. In this fluid interplay of past and present, the ink paintings serve as both witness and storyteller, bridging generational gaps and connecting us to the ever-evolving narrative of collective memory.