| 2024
Turbulence is caused by unsteady vortices, chaotic eddies and other flow instabilities. Turbulent events are caused by unrest, disruption, conflict and resistance.
This new series of drawings emerges from my years of walking along both banks of the Onguiaahra (Haudenosaunee) or Niagara River and gazing in awe at its flow. These drawings focus on river sites that have historic and symbolic significance, embodied in the turbulence created by disturbances under the water surface.
All of the works are connected by the use of grids. I harness the grid as a structural and theoretical device for creating complex, contemplative images, tapping into it as a powerful generative mechanism that integrates singularities into an all-encompassing structure where everything is linked and empty space is matter. I use the grid to both retain and release control, as a means to embrace unpredictability and “errors” and to express the wobbliness of being human. These incursions into uniformity and regulation amplify the grid’s enigmatic qualities, inviting chance and intuition. The grid contains order, chaos, grief, and limitlessness.
Work samples shown here: Turbulence: Peace Bridge Archaeological site of Genesee, Meadowood, Lamoka, Iroquoian, Nanticoke artifacts The Peace Bridge spans the Niagara River connecting Fort Erie, Canada to Buffalo, New York. During the construction (1925-27) of the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, approximately 1.2 million artifacts dating back almost 11,000 years were unearthed, including Genesee spear heads and drills, Meadowood cache blades, Lamoka points, Iroquoian triangular points, Nanticoke notched points, pestle and grinding stones, scrapers, axes, glass trade beads and copper beads, birdstones, net sinkers, harpoons and hooks, and effigy pipes. The Peace Bridge is on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabeg, many of whom continue to live and work in the area.
Turbulence: Chippawa Creek Battle and Power The natural flow of Chippawa Creek (officially named Welland River) empties into the Niagara River. Since the early 1800s, its flow has been reversed to serve industry – first the Welland Canal and then the Sir Adam Beck powerhouse. This is also one of the sites of one of the bloodiest battles of the War of 1812: the Battle of Chippawa. Fort Chippawa was part of a string of defences built along the bank of the Niagara River against American attacks.
media: graphite & watercolour (terre verte) on paper |
