the last place on earth you probably want to beart + space + audience

In November 2008, at the invitation of Andrew Hunter, I co-curated a small exhibition at the Harbourfront Centre. Along with Ben Bruneau, Kasey Hinton and Carlyanne Mersereau, we used four vitrines to trace the evolution of particular locations in Toronto: Garrison Creek/Trinity Bellwoods Park; the spot where the SS Noronic caught fire; the waterline between Strachan Ave. and Jarvis St.; and what is now known as the intersection of Front St. E. and Berkeley St.

I took a particular interest in the receding waterline of Toronto’s harbour. It was shocking to me that in approximately 100 years, Lake Ontario had been filled in enough to support an extension of land over 800m that has since been developed to include massive architectural structures, roads and highways, and of course, spots conducive to tourist activities. Because I was looking for maps specifically geared toward the location of this exhibition, I did not investigate how the waterline has been affected in other parts of Toronto.

I ended up creating a 3D structure that illustrates the receding waterline (or the expanding land, depending on how you look at it). I used four maps: one from 1827 (showing the development of Front St.); one from 1910 (showing the development of The Esplanade); an undated map that I assume is approximately 1930 (showing the development of Lakeshore Blvd.) and a present-day map from Google Maps (showing the development of Queens Quay).

Here are the original maps:

Each map was printed in black and white and mounted on 1″ foam core, trimmed at the water’s edge, and stacked reverse-chronologically with spacers in between. I used a yellow highlighter to draw attention to the streets I was focusing on. While I wanted to show the receding water (as opposed to the growing land) I found that it was difficult not to read it in the context of land since I erased the water from the maps. A water version of this map is entirely possible.

Unfortunately I don’t have any installation views at the moment. But when I get them I will update this post.