Indelible
The notion of indelible, of “not being able to be forgotten or removed” is, in these works, considered in terms of the resilience and insistence of the natural world beneath and within an urban centre. They are done on mylar with pigments made from leaves, berries, clay and other materials mostly gathered locally. The materials impart histories of cyclic growth and of the land.
The images are extracted from wallpapers used in early Toronto architecture (i.e. historic wallpapers from Colbourne Lodge built by John Howard, Toronto’s first settler architect). In their use of designs which feature natural elements such as meandering plants or floral patterns, the wallpapers assume a relationship between nature and architecture and present a consideration of how nature was viewed and shaped by early settlers. Overlaid with the wallpaper designs are early maps of Toronto which, in addition to measuring and gridding the land, depict land divisions and streets which reshaped the natural landscape.
