My creative project was in response to several things concerning my time at the Polygon, all in the form of a photo book/album/guide.

First, it was informed by the history of North Vancouver. As the gallery’s inaugural exhibition, N. Vancouver (what I have also titled my album), is concerned with the history of the North Shore, the text both engages with the history of the area by referencing significant events and spots either seen directly or alluded to in the photographs. It was also informed by the exhibition’s interest in history as made up of layers; the landscape of North Vancouver has changed radically over a few centuries, being torn down and rebuilt over repeatedly. Thus my use of paint to cover or highlight certain part of my picture is a product of this thinking.

Secondly, it was informed by my own project with the Polygon, the creation of talking points, to be used by front-line staff to answer visitor questions and help give exhibition tours. Some of the text in my album is lifted straight from my talking points and thus is also a showcase of what I’ve learned through my research, a guide itself to the photographs I took on those several seabus trips these past few months.

Lastly, it was influenced by the fact that the Polygon printed its own newsprint guide to the exhibition, which was mainly pictorial, to provide contextual images for the displayed works. I took photographs to record my own response and movements to and from North Vancouver, to create my own imagery of the area (also an aim of the exhibition, to show North Vancouver-specific works). With the newsprint guide also comes a desire for accessibility by the curators, an accessibility informed by gallery visitors (many, assumed to be from the area) relating to what they see in the works. So I include my own personal connection to/memory of North Vancouver at the beginning of the album as a introduction to the more impersonal talking-points-text.