2024 exhibitions - Corridor 45|75

March 16 to July 1, 2024

Exhibition documentation images 

In 2022, the City of Ottawa Art Collection accepted a significant donation of over 150 photographs by acclaimed Canadian photographer Bruce Paton (1950–2002). 

Counterparts showcases a selection of Bruce Paton’s work from the 1970s and early 1980s. These images focus on a specific period of Paton’s photography practice in which he documented his subjects using close-up portraiture and candid street photography techniques. The bustle of downtown streets, the comforting setting of a neighbourhood diner, and spontaneous moments from parties and festivals convey a recognizable feeling of place and time. The moments captured in these photographs may feel familiar to us as we relate our own lived experiences to the images: attending concerts, chatting with friends on the street, morning transit commutes and late-night shawarma runs. Paton’s photographs are displayed here as material counterparts to our contemporary lives – they are shaped by each viewer’s unique experiences. How are these photographs activated through the memories you carry? 

Bruce Paton’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His works are part of the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, National Gallery of Canada, and Global Affairs Canada. The City of Ottawa thanks the estate of Bruce Paton for their generosity and work to realize this donation. 

2022 Donation Review Committee: David Barbour, Marisa Gallemit, Annie Thibault   

July 13 to October 20, 2024

Exhibition documentation images  

Jane’s Walk references similarly named walking tours through urban settings for people to explore and learn more about them. Inspired by Jane Jacobs, the late urban activist who influenced development through writing and civic action, the exhibition aims to equally inspire people about their surroundings as they move through the city and LRT system. Like Jacobs, viewers may consider how individual actions determine shared spaces.  

Biography 

An Ottawa-based artist, Alisdair MacRae typically works with sculpture, installation and public art. He appreciates the tactile and formal qualities of these mediums, and their opportunities for public engagement. While some of his work may have aspects of mass or volume, he likes to think of it in terms of drawing, which can be process-intensive and open-ended. 

MacRae often uses plans in his projects as a starting point for interpretation, examining issues of scale and perspective as well as community and exchange. He also appreciates involving different people through collaboration, as they introduce unanticipated aspects into a project. While perceptual experiences may inform MacRae’s practice, he avoids work that is illusionistic, and leaves the materials and methods of production available to viewers so they can experience them on their own terms. 

Alisdair MacRae gratefully acknowledges the Ottawa Public Library Imagine Space in the making of the work. 

October 26, 2024 to March 16, 2025

During the pandemic, I, along with many others, became a sub-urban flâneur. My daily explorations took me to the outskirts of the city, to the near edges of the Greenbelt. Structured somewhere between the ordered parks of the city and the dark, unfathomable boreal forest, the history of this land can be read. At the western edge of Ottawa, between Corkstown Road and Moodie Drive, a debilitated wetland is being brought back to life. This is a next generation landscape – inherently human-made yet wild and generative, supporting both the local ecology and the health of the water flowing across the city. Reterritorialization in progress. 

While my work seeks to reveal the striking discontinuities in this area, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority describes the science behind the changes here. 

Biography 

Jon Stuart uses photography to collect and process delicate evidence which he uses to reveal meaning and sublimity in the places where we live. His images are rich portrayals of events that played out before the photographer arrived and hint at events that might happen after he departed. Each scene contains clues to existence, presence, and place, not merely documenting physical locations but places charged with significance. Jon’s detailed photographs, whether landscape or portrait, seek to draw the viewer’s eye from object to subject, shifting their view from a “space on the ground” to a “place in the mind.”

Jon was formerly an accident investigator, and he employs these skills to inform and guide his practice. He presents his conclusions using a range of printing techniques, from the subtle gradations of silver gelatin and pigment ink to post-processed video stills. Jon’s work is held in public and private collections within Canada and the UK. 

Jon Stuart gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority. 

Gabriela Avila-Yiptong, Claudia Gutierrez, Carl Stewart