From Shores of Baltic to Salish Sea, Students Explore Overlooked Systems + Histories Through Lens of Intertidal Zones

A recent collaboration between artists Laura Põld, Lou Sheppard and Laura Kozak brought together installation and sculpture students from Eesti Kunstiakadeemia (EKA - Estonian Academy of Arts) with students from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) for a research collaboration exploring place, history and possible futures.

Through workshops, artistic exchanges, guest talks, and visits to sites around Vancouver, Tide Places asks participants to consider what people can learn from “the flexibility and adaptability” of the creatures and processes of exchange in intertidal zones.

“What stories, language, memories and futurities do these lands and waters hold?” the artists write. “How do these layers of change reflect a larger narrative about relationships in this place? What resiliencies and futures are possible here?”

Laura Kozak, a faculty member at ECU, notes her students worked as research assistants (RAs) on the project, helping to develop workshops and leading the Estonian guests on walks throughout the city. The groups worked in the studio, held dialogue circles and visited art spaces.

They also visited “edge spaces,” including Skwácháy̓s (False Creek), Habitat Island and Wreck Beach, to examine how ecological forces, colonialism and industry have shaped the landscape.

Such forces are not always visible beneath the city’s gleaming veneer or even within its autobiography, Laura adds. Tide Places aims to cultivate attunement to those concealed influences.

“The students involved in this project have a tremendous capacity to notice things beyond a dichotomous, simplified story of place,” Laura says. “Together, we created a forum to ask questions about how our bioregion is shaped and we responded through creative practice. Tide Places was an opportunity for students to use artistic methods to see the systems hidden all around us and to help others see them as well.”

Tide Places is organized by the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the Libby Leshgold Gallery. The project is generously supported by Peeter Wesik, with additional funding from Erasmus and EKA, Tallinn.

Fourth-year Critical + Cultural Practice major Brie Watson and fourth-year Visual Arts major Danya Gorodetsky worked together closely to create and lead workshops and other activities throughout the project.

Having taken classes with Laura previously, Brie says Tide Places offered an opportunity for collaboration with a person she greatly admires.

“Laura’s engagement with community and with histories is humble, genuine and shows how this type of work can be led in a good way,” Brie says. “A lot of my personal practice is about the history of the land and place-based knowledge. Working alongside Laura, I got to learn how she models her work, ethics, and practice."

Danya notes her own practice involves “taking what I learn and translating it into a pedagogical environment. And I learned a lot, especially from Laura’s method of facilitation and Brie’s approach to co-learning.”

Danya adds their workshops centred partly around the theme of illusion.

“So, breaking down how Vancouver presents itself through landscape, geography, infrastructure and marketing versus what that image conceals,” she says.

“Through our work together, we considered how this pervasive illusory element operates in the ways institutions and individuals position their work,” Brie and Danya write in a joint statement. “Going forward, we want to continue exploring how storytelling through public art and social practice about the stolen land of Vancouver plays a role in building this narrative.”

Fourth-year Communication Design student Sakeena Soni’s contribution to Tide Places primarily involves developing the forthcoming publication documenting the project. Like Danya, Sakeena’s degree includes a Social Practice and Community Engagement (SPACE) minor, reflecting her interest in social practice and place-based design.

“My grad work is related to revitalizing green spaces and urban farming, and Tide Places is a great opportunity to learn about the land and geography before it was colonized,” she says. “Also, graphic design can be super commercial. I wanted to use my skills in ways that felt more valuable and more closely focused on my interests. That’s why I was excited to take part.”

Fourth-year Visual Arts student Parumveer Walia was given the role of witness – an Indigenous concept aimed at developing an oral record of community events. Parumveer, who focuses on photography and writing, is the primary contributor of images and words for the forthcoming publication.

“Being given space to create writing for the publication has helped me develop my practice,” he says. But by no means was the work easy, he adds. And in large part, that is what made the project so rewarding.

“There was some discomfort at first, but meeting that challenge was very fruitful,” he continues. “We learned to take on a difficult topic and not shy away from the work just because it’s hard. And I think we were able to provide our guests with new models for understanding they can take with them.”

Laura applauded the commitment her RAs demonstrated throughout the project, underscoring the importance of introducing the EKA students to a version of Vancouver most visitors never get to see.

“In tourist pictures of Vancouver, you almost always see the ocean, and then a tightly clustered bouquet of buildings, and then the mountains and sky,” Laura says. “It’s an image of the city as something very pristine and beautiful. But you can’t see any of the systems supporting those elements or the implications for other cultural ways and beings. As artists and designers, our role can be to translate some of that and help others see what’s missing in those kinds of images.”

Visit the Shumka Centre online to learn more about Tide Places. Follow them on Instagram to stay up to date on the forthcoming Tide Places publication.