The Limestone Barrens Project investigates links between three areas: the limestone cliffs and alvars of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, the Burren in County Clare, Ireland, and the limestone barrens on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. Links will be explored through the disciplines of science, visual art and creative writing.   This project asks visual artists working in lens-based media (photography, video, video projection and video installation), writers and other researchers to walk the sites. Scientists, park rangers and others provide the brief and background information for the artists. These walks will form the basis for touring exhibitions, a publication, symposium and other forms of public presentation of the work and the residencies. In addition, schools will participate with ongoing projects throughout 2004 and 2005. The exhibition will open at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery in June 2004; it will travel to the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery in Spring 2005 and then overseas to the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo and the Limerick City Gallery of Art. Other venues for the exhibition are being sought. The symposium will take place in Corner Brook at the end of June and will feature field trips to the limestone barrens on the Northern Peninsula.

We are concentrating on lens-based work for three reasons: to give the exhibition coherence; to take the measure of this artistic practice in the three regions; and because issues that the limestone barrens raise lend themselves easily to lens-based work more so than other media.

Project background:

The Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, the tip of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, and the great limestone Burren of Co. Clare provide geological, botanical and cultural correspondences related to survival and adaptation. While as landscape, the three areas are known for the spectacular rugged beauty of the sculptural limestone outcroppings, the ecological significance of these areas is fascinating. Limestone barrens, covered with a thin layer of soil, if any at all, and marked by crevices or grikes, support unique ecosystems characterized by extremes of temperature, cycles of drought and flooding, frost. Flora and animal life, supremely adapted to living in these harsh conditions, are often rare or endangered. For example, while the limestone barrens on this island represent less than 1% of the total area of the island, they harbor 10% of the province's rare plants. These plants are survivors: usually small, often rare, and always hardy. The limestone environment of the Bruce Peninsula have been described as being home to species at the extreme limits of their normal range. And, in the literature about the Burren in Co. Clare, it is noted that while the flowers found there may not be unique to the barrens, what is unusual, is for such rare plants be found in abundance and together in an environment which combines Mediterranean, Arctic and North American conditions. The Burren , however, stands in marked contrast to the other two areas because its rugged environment is the result of Bronze Age farming practices which turned the area into grazing pastures which eventually encouraged complete erosion of the soil and the exposure of the underlying limestone. Subsequently the region was overrun by the alpine and sub-arctic species of plants. A report on the Watt's Point Ecological Reserve raises the interesting question as to whether the plants in the limestone barrens of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula live there because they have specific qualities which allow them to grow there or whether they have survived because there is no competition-nothing else can survive in that environment. Are these plants poor competitors or supreme adaptors? Do they live in the barrens because they can't compete in more desirable areas or are they the basis for adaptation and change within the species? Thus, the three regions stand as metaphor for survival and adaptation, on the one hand, and, on the other, fragility. Linked as they are through history and culture, similar geology and botany, they also raise questions about exchange, edges and cultural attitudes towards "Nature", environmentalism, conservation, cultural tourism and landscape.

We see the Limestone Barrens Project as an opportunity to engage the scientific communities as well as the broader non-academic commmity. It is also an opportunity to develop a model for meaningful creative interchange between disciplines whereby the sciences can inform artistic practice and intellectual content of the art. The project will continue to cultivate a lasting relationship between the three regions which share much in character and culture. Further, we see the project as an opportunity to facilitate contemporary landscape art and art about the environment, particularly in new media. On the Newfoundland and Labrador side we see the project as an opportunity to promote the work of our artists and writers internationally and nationally, to cultivate a young audience and to provide an opportunity for regional artists to work and exhibit side by side with artists from other regions of Canada.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the research for the project and artist visits have received financial and in-kind support from the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College; Memorial University of Newfoundland; Canada Council for the Arts; Natural Resources Canada-Canadian Forest Service, Tourism, Culture and Recreation-Parks and Natural Areas Division; and the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. The project is supported in Ontario by the Ontario Arts Council; City of Owen Sound; Cultural Capitals; the Escarpment Centre Ontario; and the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, Owen Sound, Ontario, home of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, has been designated as a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2004 addressing the theme of “People and the Land”. The Limestone Barrens Project will be a cornerstone in the program that the city will present during its banner year. In Ireland, to date the project has been supported by the Model Arts and Niland Gallery; and the Cultural Relations Committee-Department of External Affairs, Ireland.

Three legs of the journey:

The first leg: At the end of July 2003, artists, writers and curators from Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Ireland walked the limestone barrens of Watt’s Point, Cape Norman and Burnt Cape as well as Port au Choix and Flower’s Cove on the Northern Peninsula. While in Corner Brook, the artists and writers were briefed by Joe Brazil and Gerry Yetman, scientists associated with the Limestone Barrens Conservation and Recovery Team, regarding the ecological significance of these unique areas which support a number of endangered and rare species of plants. During their visit to the Northern Peninsula they were also accompanied by Dulcie House, program supervisor of the Limestone Barrens Stewardship Program and met with Michael Burzynski and Anne Marceau of Parks Canada. Participants in this first leg of the project were: Greg Staats, Har Prakash Khalsa and Stuart Reid, all of Ontario; Liam O'Callaghan of Ireland; David Morrish, John Steffler and Charlotte Jones, all of Corner Brook.

The second leg: The second leg of the research trips and walks began September 22, 2003 on the Bruce Peninsula with Marlene Creates, Joe Brazil and Charlotte Jones (Newfoundland and Labrador); Sean McCrum, Liam O'Callaghan, Orla Kenny and Rob Canning (Ireland); and Har Prakash Khalsa, Kris Rosar, Liz Zetlin, and Stuart Reid (Ontario). The artists attended presentations by Jim Faught, Executive Director of the Ontario Federation of Naturalists, Lorraine Brown of the Escarpment Centre Ontario and Dr. Doug Larsen, the researcher who identified the ancient cedar forests clinging to the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment, the oldest forest in Eastern North America. They were given tours of limestone barrens along the Bruce Peninsula by Ethan Meleg and Don Wilkes of Parks Canada where they viewed cedars which were dated to 550 years, a stunning alvar at Baptist Harbour, sea stacks, and the magnificent limestone cliffs of Georgian Bay. They also were given tours by botanists Mark Wierczinski and Nels Mahar, a specialist in ferns.

The third leg:. In November 2003, David Morrish, Kris Rosar, and Liz Zetlin, and Sean McCrum visited the Burren. There, they met with Penny Bartlett, Park Conservator for the Burren, for a half-day walking guided tour of a significant area of the Burren. They spent three days walking areas of their choice. They also met with Suzanne Woods, the Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo and Mike Fizpatrick, the Director of Limerick City Art Gallery.

For the Artist and curator biographies, go HERE.
To return to the start, go HERE.