Rose Coloured Plot
On this land were and are the overlapping territories of the Katzie and Kwantlen peoples. On this land, stolen by British Columbia, lines were drawn to create Lot 15, a plot of land sold to a Japanese family who farmed transparent apple trees. Interrupted by British Columbia's plot of Japanese dispossession, lines were drawn to create 12258 224th Street. This same plot of land was then sold to and stewarded for over 50 years by my grandmother. Interrupted again by British Columbia's scheme of densification. The land is now occupied by a condo development that shadows a lonely apple tree, trapped behind a private property sign.
My grandmother viewed this land through the rose colored lens of her camera and never spoke of its past. But this plot like all land is a palimpsest - many layers, written and erased, that if transparent could possibly connect us to the land and each other.
This project is ongoing.
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Anthotypes
Prints made with my grandmother’s photographs, natural plant dyes and sunshine. On the plot of land named 12258 224th street.
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Monotypes
Prints made with the soil, roots and leaves surrounding the transparent apple trees that were planted by the Japanese farmers. On the land that was names Lot 15.
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Dyeing
Paper and wool hand dyed with the sweet leaves and bark of the transparent apple trees that were planted by Japanese farmers and tended to by my grandmother.
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Transparencies
Shadow boxes that contain layers of slide transparencies and monotypes. Reflective of the layers of this plot of land