Kevin Van Lierop
tagged: #ldnont
Circumnavigating Lake Fanshawe
Finding a temple in the woods.
For some, Lake Fanshawe is just a pool of water that is too slow at the evaporation game, for others it is downstream from places where life moves at a slower pace (hi, St. Marys!). And for some, those occupying the surrounding day-use conservation area at any given moment, it can be a place for their children and dogs to pee while other people swim and fish. For me, well, Lake Fanshawe may just be my temple in the woods.
Seismic Lines — Matthew Trueman
17 Grand Ave.
2015–2019. Four years. One place. 🏠
Home is what we make of the people, experiences, environments, and things we invite to be close to us. Treat your living space like a museum, and you’ll live in a museum. Create a welcoming space for neighbours, and your neighbours will come. Live in your space, and you will live.
While there are certain elements that I’ll never miss from my time spent at 17 Grand Ave, when I look back to this place I called my first home I can’t help but to think about the various moments out of which memories formed.
Official Passport…
…to the trees of the Carolinian Forest. 🛃
Inspired by Bill Hodgson’s tree sculptures, I wanted to compile a guide that would let visitors & tourists experience the trees in an interactive and meaningful way.
The (metal) Trees of the Carolinian Forest have, at times, received some unfortunate local press and they are often misunderstood and under-appreciated by many residents of the Forest City. Having a strong affection for traditional paper maps and an appreciation for Hodgson’s work, I wanted to capture this public art installation in a way that would allow people to engage with the sculptures and the downtown core where they are located.
The ”Official” Passport to the Trees of the Carolinian Forest was a mini-guide that when torn from a notepad could be folded and used as a guide for a walking tour of the sculpture collection.
Big City Lights
In the summer, in the city. 🌃
Spend any amount of time in a city, at night, and you will soon uncover its true essence. The beat of the city’s heart, its neglected people and places, the things that truly matter and everything that has, or can be forgotten.
Big city lights.
The scenes we pass by during our daily travels, coming to and from work, are the things we never give attention to but that deserve more of it. Often, the only time we have the head space, perspective, or time to appreciate these intimate spaces is after all of the offices have closed; after the sun has gone down, and the city is left to be everything it is and nothing that others claim it to be.
London Culture Tour: Dive Bar Edition
A group of regionalists walk into a bar. 🍻
What constitutes a dive bar these days is open to individual interpretation. Once a derogatory term for a drinking establishment that only the seediest of individuals would frequent, the term is now worn as a badge of honour and has led way to a renaissance of these unique cultural spaces.
Having never spent much time in these drinking establishments, the unknowns of local dive bars has always held a certain appeal to me. Wanting to better understand these anchors of local economics and establishments from which community can form, I proposed the idea to some fellow localists to spend a day touring a selection of these places.
What About Our Stories?
Thoughts about leaving a local historical narrative that’s worth reading. 📰
There are so many stories, images, essays and pieces of literature that create an important and defining record of London’s history which that are lost on a daily basis. Ephemeral—written on single pieces of paper, files stored on hard drives that are not made to last, oral histories that are not being passed on from generation to generation; or ignored—lacking credibility as they are not produced by 'qualified journalists'. Many of the stories that are so important to defining our lives today, and capturing the prevailing narrative of today for tomorrow, continue to disappear as we often lack the intentionality to capture and preserve them.
Walk London
A guerrilla wayfinding project. 🦍 👉
guerrilla (adj.): unsanctioned, self initiated and spontaneous interventions (intended to be in the public realm for the greater good)
wayfinding (n.): how you find your way from place to place (physical orientation)
Walk London installed signs around the downtown core of London, Canada directing pedestrians to local businesses, organizations, parks, and institutions.
Hamilton Road
Places called home. 🏘️
From a young age, I have found myself making trips to the Hamilton Road Neighbourhood on a regular basis. From having fish and chips at Bob’s—now gone; getting my hair cut—from the same person, age 2 to 25; to eating some old fashioned Italian food from Duffy’s Cove—also gone. I have some memorable moments etched in my mind from this stretch of road and its surrounding community.
Now, as life has become busier, I do not find myself returning to this area as much as I once did. When I do venture back to this part of town, one which provided me so much as I was growing up, I often make the trip by foot. Walking to Hamilton Road from my home provides an opportunity to experience this part of my broader community in a new light. As I walk my pace of life slows and my eyes open to what place can mean in the context of the everyday elements which surround us.
PARK(ing) Day
Tagline needed.
PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists, and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical conversations around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban, human habitats.
This Once Was
Building upon what has come before. 🧱
Each day as we walk around the places where we live, signs of previous eras often present themselves. Remaining façades, historic plaques, or modern attempts of recreating the past; these remnants of what once was are often all we have to interact with of the history that has shaped the places we inhabit.
As I pass by the same buildings day-after-day, I often think to myself, “what was once located where these new buildings and businesses now stand?” Some of the buildings have managed to retain their character over the years but many buildings in London, Canada have suffered lesser fates, many destroyed and demolished to make way for new buildings and far too often, parking lots.
Searching through archives of images to find historic buildings that had their own character, I took to the streets to find the current and past locations of these buildings. Super-imposing the historic with what currently exists in the same location, the following image study provides commentary on: how the city has changed over time, what character of the street has been lost and maintained, and the level of value we assign as a community to our historic groundings when weighed against modern city-building, and political agendas.
Observations (film)
Attending to our surroundings. 🎥
Urban life can pass by quicker than time itself. If we are not intentional about slowing down our pace, to give attention to the spaces we interact with, we run the risk of disassociating with the very places that contribute to shaping our identity.
Simply observing the world around us, making note of the ways which people interact with each other and their environments, is one way to better understand and remain connected to the locales where we choose to live. Often, in giving attention to the locations we find ourselves within at any given moment and the places we most frequent, we can learn more about ourselves as individuals and as members of the larger collectives we belong to.
100 Ways
Instigating a city-wide conversation. 💯
100 Ways was a sign-based installation that instigated a community-wide conversation in London, Canada. Spanning multiple topics of public interest, the ideas presented were generated from an open public call which we collected and distilled down to a select hundred that provided an overview of all received submissions.