Watershed

Mary Anne Barkhouse, John Boyle,
Brad Copping, Liz Magor, Stan Olthuis, Amanda Strong, and Olivia Whetung

“In waterways, there is a constant flow of intergenerational knowledge passing through the lakes, rivers and oceans; every body of water holds a spirit, a history and informs the land.”

Shannon Webb-Campbell, 2017 [1]

The Art Gallery of Peterborough is situated on the shores of the Otonabee/Odenabe River at Little Lake, near the location of a traditional Anishinaabe portage site, and across the water from the newly opened Canadian Canoe Museum.

The natural flow and positioning of these waters were altered by the Trent-Severn Waterway which spans 386 kilometers and connects Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. The construction of Lock 21, designated as the Peterborough Lift Lock, was the highest hydraulic system of its kind for years, and operates, “like a system of dams constricting and constraining and controlling what the river can do….”[2]. These large locks block the traditional pathways of schools of salmon who would travel up the Odenabe to Stoney Lake each year.

“Watershed” builds upon this context, and considers the ways in which power dynamics teeter at the surface of the water.