Abstract

The canalized southernmost section of Wonscotonach (the Don River) in Tkarón:to (Toronto), also known as The Narrows, is a highly disturbed urban natural landscape. Following the 1886 Don Improvement Project, the Keating Channel, and today the Port Lands Revitalization and Flood Protection Project, these Lands have been harnessed and developed through settler colonization to tame and control the once-winding river. This research-creation—in the form of a curated online exhibition and written thesis—presents a critical (re)reading of the notion of improvement, becoming allied to the pre-colonial landscape and the knowledge it carried.

This exhibition and thesis develop the concept of the meander, inspired by the non-linear trajectory of the pre-canalized Don River, as a model for the curatorial. The curatorial process of improvement becomes a wall, and the river meanders still began before the global COVID-19 pandemic and, subsequently, was derailed in March 2020. The exhibition’s final form was unknowable throughout much of the curatorial process. Thus, following the meander as a research-creation technique, the curatorial process, exhibitionary structure, and content had to adapt through lingering uncertainty. This thesis, contributing to the theoretical and practical knowledge of research-creation, looks to intersections with the curatorial following the theoretical underpinnings of Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, Natalie Loveless and Stefanie Springgay and Sarah E. Truman. As a project untethered from institutional timelines and normative requirements to ‘know a project in advance,’ as well as the conventions of a physical exhibition, this research-creation manifested through process-led, creative and exploratory techniques (such as walking and drawing) and slowed pace allowed by the COVID-19 pandemic’s reframing of time. This research-creation exhibition and written thesis develop a responsive and resilient curatorial process deeply indebted to Land-based knowledge.