Originally exhibited as part of Historiographic, at Harbourfront Centre, 2014.

Hand embroidered with naturally dyed DMC pearl cotton #12

Home Territory

History is a study subject to interpretation, in which narratives become scattered and muddied, skewed and biased, altered and embellished, strewn and gathered, unpicked, and patch-worked back together. Maps form a part of the writing of this history, tracing our intimacy with the pathways and geographies they seek to explain. In my daily life I travel the same corridor along the shores of Lake Ontario; the waste places along the highways and rail routes are my accompanying panorama. All the scenes are fleeting because of the speed of travel, but as blurred images sweep past, I absorb the scenery and I wonder how the landscape might look without the last two centuries of human touch. I imagine myself lady geographer, traversing the landscape of this country, recording the terrain and documenting gathered specimens with needle and thread, the land shaping my character and leaving traces upon me as I traverse it.