‘BLOOD, WATER & BATHURST STREET’ (BW&B) is a participatory, textile-based mapping project by Naomi Daryn Boyd that explores the histories, communities, and peoples that have shaped these lands. Encompassed within an 18-meter-long wool scroll, stories, experiences, and land-based knowledge are translated and brought into conversation through materials. Experimenting with a wide variety of textile handicraft techniques and processes, primarily in wool and found natural materials, ‘BW&B’ is a site for ongoing material experiments and dialogue, growing with each new addition from the public.
The map surveys Bathurst Street and its geographic surroundings, from the current shoreline of Niigani-Gichigami (Lake Ontario) up to Steeles Avenue (the City of Toronto’s northern boundary), at a scale of 1:1000. ‘BW&B’ offers a highly focused and tactile reading of an often underappreciated swath of this city; it is unequal parts family tree, topographic exploration, material research, and community-sourced historical document.
After winning the Best in Festival: Exhibition Award in 2024, ‘BW&B’ returns to DesignTO in a new exhibition at 401 Richmond’s Urbanspace Gallery. A new portion of the map will be on display alongside a number of other works exploring textiles as a mode of resistance. All visitors are invited to add their own stories, experiences, and perspectives to this collective project.
Participants
Naomi Daryn BoydAccessibility
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