Research Phase

January – April 2022

This residency began with an extended period of research which allowed me to meet with a number of people connected to the Waterfront and spend time thinking about what to create during the residency.

One key question has been where/how to engage the public realm along the waterfront with new, temporary artworks. It’s a thin stretch of land with big seasonal ebbs and flows of visitors. Its public spaces tend to be tucked between the buildings, and along the lake’s inlets, each one with its own character and activity, all with expansive views onto the lake and Toronto Island beyond. There aren’t a lot of obvious surfaces for presenting artwork on, so we talk about bus shelters, banners, projections and other unconventional moments for creative intervention.

Throughout my artistic practice, thinking about how, where and when the public encounters artworks has been constant. But, particularly in this moment at what is hopefully the tail end of the pandemic and particularly considering the residency’s focus on climate change, finding spaces where people can have meaningful encounters with artworks feels important.

Another thing I’ve been wrestling with as I think about what I’ll be making during this residency is the ecological cost of making just about anything. As I think of different ideas and possibilities, I can’t help but wonder what their ecological impact will be, their embodied carbon emissions and material implications. And yet, given the site and context seems impossible not to make something, some kind of thing that will use materials and energy.

As I contemplated this, I stumbled onto the possibility of carbon negative materials, materials that absorb more atmospheric carbon than is used in their extraction and/or production. I’m not sure these materials work at a hugely impactful scale in relation to climate change yet (seems there’s a lot of debate around this) but as a material possibility for an artwork, I’m drawn to trying to work with these carbon capturing materials. There’s something about the process of exchange that seems promising to work with.

Another important inspiration that came from this research time has been the Port Lands site, which I was able to tour in the early spring. This massive undertaking is rebuilding the mouth of the Don River, which is currently a concrete channel that turns at a ninety degree angle before meeting the lake. The project is a tangle of the engineering and natural forces, restoration and toxicity, all carefully managed and choreographed with precision.