My present photographic research from 2024 to 2026 is based on fieldwork conducted at Old Refinery Park, the location of a former oil refinery in southeast Calgary and which is identified as a site of contaminated land. Over the decades since the decommission of the refinery in 1976, information on the extent of the hydrocarbon and lead contamination was supressed, the Sprung hydroponic greenhouse operating on the decommissioned site closed due to hydrocarbon vapours and lead contamination, and a residential land planning contamination scandal occurred at Lynnview Ridge. Today the land is in a state of remediation and has been re-designated as a public park. I explore the effects of industrial contamination through historical archival material of the industrial land usage and my photographic images of the current land usage today as a public space.​

 

Each montage of photographic material serves as an archive of my fieldwork and research on the old refinery site. I combine historical archival photographs of the refinery’s past with my photographic research exploring the current condition of the land. Presenting the historical archives in this context creates a state of re-performance, assembling materials as a new archive. An archival map outlining preliminary park development plans for the former refinery site, containing named areas of the site, is used as an organizational feature with each montage corresponding to an area of the park. Each montage contains current photography that juxtaposes with historical archival images creating a then and now archival presentation. Representing a decolonial gaze, aerial imagery is divided into gridlines making evident land division practises. Similarly, soil as an archive of the earth, is given agency to speak through soil chromatography – a scientific process that reveals the memory of contamination and speaks to the history of past land abuse.