DUST CYCLES 

12:47 min, 16mm to 2K, 2017

Dust Cycles is a single-channel video installation that explores the intersection between geological time and cinematic space at the Scarborough Bluffs. Dust Cycles uses 16mm film and aerial video footage to capture the remarkable landscape of the Bluffs, a string of cliffs located at the eastern edge of Toronto’s waterfront that are imbued with multiple collisions, contradictions, and temporalities.

The Scarborough Bluffs are a site that reflects enormous historical and geographical changes. As the original shoreline of ancient Lake Iroquois, the Bluffs are one of few remaining records of the last Ice Age.

Aerial video is used to capture the landscape through a colonial lens. This particular way of viewing land is also directly connected to map-making and warfare. In the late 1940s, the Bluffs were developed into a residential neighbourhood despite the warnings of local geologist AP Coleman. As a result, erosion increased and properties began to crumble after significant rainstorms. By capturing a property that has been slowly sliding off the cliffs for the past 20 years, I’m interested in exploring the instability created by human intervention.

The present landscape of the Bluffs is rich with birds, wildlife and plant species that have adapted to its unique topography. To reduce wave action, the city of Toronto created artificial beaches made of construction site waste and discarded concrete. These elements are entwined with the natural forces of water, sand and wave action. Slowly the landscape reclaims bits of garbage, bricks and glass; all evidence of human activity. The Scarborough Bluffs still resist human presence and capitalist development, making the site both threatening and fascinating. Dust Cycles explores this contradiction by examining what is visible and legible; what we can see, and what we can ever really know, about a place.

Exhibitions / Screenings
2019 MOCA Toronto, Doors Open, Toronto, ON
2019 Design TO, Surface Tension exhibition, Artport Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
2018 Nuit Blanche, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto, ON
2018 Syros International Film Festival
2018 Edinburgh Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
2017 Festival Nouveau Cinema, Cinémathèque québécoise, Dust Cycles, Montreal, QC
2017 VISIONS screening series at La Lumiere, Eva Kolcze: Topography and Traces, Montreal, QC