How to remember (paradise) , Canada Quay


".. in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known world... Push not off from that isle, thou cans't never return." Herman Melville
How to remember (paradise) Canada Quay, Harbourfront, Nov.8 - Jan....2004
		night view
	On the recent death of Holly Jones, a ten year old girl in Toronto, Gary Ellis, Staff Inspector for the Toronto Police Homicide Unit, said, "We hope for a better world. And we are the ultimate protectors. If we can¹t protect children it's a lost cause. We always feel a sense of failure." "How to remember (paradise)" is a mixed media installation about our desire to protect children from the dangers , real or perceived, that surround them. In this installation the vitality of the children and their colourful world are encased in plastic . Around them swirl a variety of threatening forces and the protective systems intended to keep them safe . As a result, those we value most - the children - are isolated. Since there is a presumption of wrongdoing - everything bad has undue prominence. Perhaps this is the way children and adults necessarily coexist in modern cities. The dvd projection showing children in the countryside playing free of these constraints reinforces our desires for simpler times and places.