One aim of the Fallen Leaves project is to raise awareness in Ottawa. This project employs aerial photography, typologies, and archival reference, to reflect on the loss of these spaces. It intends to frame these lived spaces and clearing actions not only as ecological events, but as moments that reshape our shared identity and memory as a community and nation. As a component of that dissemination, I will be looking to showcase the work in galleries and art spaces. In my planning and outreach efforts I have developed a virtual exhibition as both a concept and example of what such an exhibition might look like.
These forests have long stood as a backdrop to daily life for thousands of residents, and their removal raises important questions about what is gained, and what is quietly lost, in the name of growth. In designing an online platform with integrated links to this site, social media platforms, and the associated zines which are in development, I intend to engage viewers from a variety of means.
Further, as urban expansion is a far broader global issue, employing broader and publicly accessible means of dissemination enable it to anchor the work in contemporary ecological dialogues. Please feel free to visit the space.
A sole tree standing in a cold Kanata field
““When the town fathers proposed lobbying for city status in 1852, William Stewart petitioned council to have is farm excluded from the new city limits. He argued that ‘the present limit of the Town is large enough for the next half-century.’
Stewart was not entirely right, however.
The land then within the limits would not contain the city’s expansion for five years let alone fifty.””