“We all live on a watershed even if it’s off a downspout or a tent flap. Watersheds are our connection to the ecosystem.” — Robert Wiens

Currently installed at the National Gallery of Canada, in a permanent collection exhibition, is the drawing “Ravine World” by Olia Mishchenko. Comprised of ten sheets at 22 x 30 inches, this continuous drawing maps a shoreline over its 300 inch length. I have always thought of this work as a primordial meeting place of land and water, enacted upon by humans at play and at work and by the effects of erosion, repair and urban development.

Summer 2024 was also a time of flash flooding in many parts of the world, including in Toronto where flash thunderstorms flooded roads and basements. It was also the year that the mayor of Paris, host of the Summer Olympics, demonstrated to the world the recently-remediated water health of the river Seine, by taking a swim.

The group exhibition “Watershed” looks at bio-diversity in the era of climate change.