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by Canadian Landscape Architects
“The French word for landscape, paysage, carries with it a sense of nationhood (pays—country, region, nation) and cultural identity (paysan—peasant, ruralite); notions of landscape and place are deeply embedded in who we are. Landscape architects are often intermediaries in this relationship, analyzing the physical and cultural characteristics of a site to gain an understanding of just what a place is before formulating solutions that involve shaping the land. However, critics have identified a growing disparity between landscape and cultural narrative, the fissure attributed to an obsessive emphasis on technologic and performative measures that all but forgets the “metaphysical and mythopoetic” qualities integral to the meaning of place.
This paper examines the emergence of art installations by Canadian landscape architects as a response to this cultural condition and as a mode of work that critically explores Canadian cultural identities related to landscape. In recent years, we have seen an increasing number of installations – at garden festivals, art events, and in everyday urban contexts. By critically questioning how we relate to place, these projects have become integral to the revival of landscape as an artistic medium. This paper begins with a brief history detailing the relationship between landscape and art, the garden as a subject of aesthetic exploration, and the emergence of installation projects. It will then examine recent installation projects through three predominant themes that reflect a progression of Canada’s cultural landscape identities – wilderness myths, nature and artifice, and shifting landscapes.”