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Event Calendar
NIAGARA PALIMPSEST
Niagara Palimpsest is an alternate portrait of Niagara Falls, a place that is difficult to “see” because its myriad iconic images cloud our imagination. Growing up just a short distance from the Falls I often wondered about the natural world of this ‘natural wonder’. Recently, while researching for a shoot in the area, I stumbled upon two anonymous school notebooks from 1891 containing pressed plants from the areas that now comprise the City of Niagara Falls. Taken in by the aesthetic quality of the pressings, I felt compelled to track down each of the 178 plants to uncover their fate – what survives, and what has been lost?
As I investigated each plant in this way, I began imagining the amateur botanist who had inhabited, tracked and named this same natural world, and I began drawing parallels between us. In her time the areas around the Falls and its riverbanks had only recently been stripped of trees. It is impossible to know whether she wondered about what had already been lost, or if she sensed the trajectory of things to come. Following in her footsteps, and impelled by the same compulsion to research, name and preserve, in the end I came to question these same impulses. What ends do they ultimately serve? Ultimately perhaps, our work can only attest to the “natural” history of the Falls, giving evidence of how significantly we have shaped this land.
BIO
Dianne Davis is a photo-based artist who lives and works in Toronto. She explores the complex relationships between humans and the natural world. Davis uses images to puncture the sense of inevitability that often informs the landscape and make it difficult to read and deconstruct its artifice. She has exhibited widely and her work is in the permanent collection of the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado and Union Investment Real Estate based in Hamburg, Germany. Davis holds a MEng and a BSc from the University of Toronto, an MA from Concordia University and a BFA in Photography from OCAD University. She is the recipient of Emerging Visual Artist Grants from the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils. Davis was born and raised in Chippawa (Niagara Falls, Ontario).
I would like to acknowledge that the land from which these plants were gathered is the traditional territory of Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples.
– Dianne Davis
Help your child get Kindergarten ready with Kindergarten 101. Kindergarten-style storytime routine designed to foster independence and play-based learning. Parents and caregivers foster independence by leaving the program but not the library. For the final 15 minutes caregivers return to participate in activities with their child. Children must be starting Kindergarten for the first time in the Fall 2018. Registration is required.
Stop by to participate in the TD Summer Reading Club 2018 with The Niagara Falls Public Library. Outreach drop-in locations at one of the Niagara Falls Parks and Pools.
Push the limits of your creativity at our brand new Oakes Room Media Lab. Explore your inner talent as you learn how to record and edit audio, pictures and video. No previous knowledge required. Ages: 10 years and up. Registration is required.
Join Christian from The Frugal Dutchman, a locally owned store in Ridgeway, and learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons. Beginners welcome! Registration is required.
Join Christian from The Frugal Dutchman - a locally owned store in Ridgeway - and learn how to play Pokemon: The Card Game. Beginners welcome! No registration required.
Learn to set up a Facebook account and gain understanding in basic account settings, uploading photos, liking, commenting, chatting, groups and pages, and other essential features. Account security and privacy settings will also be clarified. You will need an active web-based email account (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), and may bring photos in an electronic format to upload. 2 hours.
