In Neighbourhood, exhibited at Gallery 101 in 2001, I examine vernacular residential architecture’s contribution to Ottawa’s identity. These subtly distorted images are taken with a plastic camera, and they mimic the sight pattern of the human eye when it casually observes a subject in passing: focus appears arbitrary and perspective is warped.

With the sky and occasional power lines serving as a backdrop, these structures appear to have been uprooted from their surrounding environments. Relocated to the gallery, these buildings create an artificial neighbourhood whose architectural prototypes modestly defy urban trends towards anonymity. We are reminded that a façade is shared between community and tenants, and that Ottawa’s cityscape is constructed out of buildings that differ in age, upkeep and other fundamental attributes.