title> Homemaking
medium> string, existing situations
date> ongoing since September 2002

Since September 2002 I have been building human-scaled spiderwebs in under-used urban sites in Toronto and other cities suffering from inadequate housing, marking the city in terms of survival by identifying possible places for temporary refuge or habitation. The vulnerability of these delicate structures suggests commonalities between camouflage and escape strategies of animals and the tenuous existence of many people in what are equally difficult urban situations. Some of the structures are quite large (several meters across), but remain physically very subtle, almost invisible, underlining the surreptitious nature of the action. The webs are bound to disappear before long, not least because they are inherently critical of the ways in which space is (not) being used.

title> Squat
date> 2001
medium> stickers and actions

In certain neighbourhoods (such as my own along King Street West in Toronto) that are undergoing wholesale transformation and conversion into tracts of condominiums and lofts,  housing tends to become grounds for a battle. In situations in which affordable shelter is beyond one's means, one should make temporary use of what is available and plentiful - say, the unfinished structures slated to become homes for the more well-to-do. When moving on from these spaces, one might want to leave a token of one's passage, one which might also serve as a small reminder of the pasts and histories that these structures tend to obliterate, and which might incidentally make these new constructions a little less homely.

title>    Surrender
medium>    white flag
date>    1999

A white flag flies atop a building or a flagpole, surrendering an unspecified territory and unidentified people to an unknown end. Signalling receptiveness, it is a simple affirmation of openness to the world.

title>  indicios
date>  ongoing since 2000
medium>  photographic index of Mexico-City taxis

An ongoing photographic archive of licence numbers on the sides of Mexico-City taxis. In that city of some 20 milllion inhabitants, 100,000 taxis and abounding stories about the dangers of using them, the compendium is a visual reminder of both the everyday care taken by residents, and of the tenuousness of individual connections.