Mar 7: Photography, Local Wetland Restoration, the Changing Climate and Public Art (In Person)

During the pandemic, Jon, along with many others, became a sub-urban flâneur, travelling to the outskirts of the city, the near edges of the greenbelt. At the western edge of Ottawa, squeezed between the new DND campus, the 417, a chip manufacturer and a new LRT station, a debilitated wetland is being brought back to life. This is a next generation landscape – inherently human-made, yet wild and generative, supporting both the local ecology and the health of the water flowing across the city. Jon Stuart’s photographs of this landscape serve as an intimate turn towards interpreting the slow-changing world around us. Through his collection “Stillwater,” Stuart aims to invite viewers inside the wetlands’ evolution. Today’s look at the public exhibition of Jon’s wetland photographs also invites reflection on the role of urban wetlands in the work of climate impact mitigation.

Speaker: Jon Stuart uses photography to collect and process delicate evidence which he uses to reveal meaning in the apparently mundane. Each scene contains clues to existence, presence, and place, not merely documenting physical locations, but places charged with significance. Jon’s photographs seek to draw the viewer’s eye from object to subject, shifting their view from a “space on the ground” to a “place in the mind.”

Actions

Keep an eye out for discontinuity in your local landscape, what looks like it doesn’t belong? Or what needs restoration and care?
Check out Jon Stuart’s gallery display at Corridor 45/75 in Ottawa in November, and at the CONTACT Photography festival in Toronto in May
Visit your “nearby nature”
Consider the “drive by landscapes” you see on a daily basis