Category: walks

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Plant Pilfering Walk

Doris McCarthy Trail and Plant Pilfering Walk by Donna Akrey

2015 – Donna Akrey and a friend headed to east side Toronto along side the Scarborough bluffs. This is where there are many trails through the woods and down the steep sandy bluff to Lake Ontario.

​This trail is on the property of the painter, Doris McCarthy, who lived and worked and then generously donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust to become a retreat for future generations of artists, known as Fool’s Paradise.

I (Donna) was in search of a handful of plants to work with for a video project called Plant Life to hopefully be made in the near future. This trail is near the last place my mom lived and we used to go for walks closer to the Guildwood Inn. I will also be walking between the two places looking for plants.*

The plants I was looking for are rare species. They are buffalo berry, Hitchcock’s sedge and blue cohosh. I did find some plants, but not those yet. I will keep looking for the perfect plants to collaborate with.

*Note-The Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood is 1-2 minutes shorter than the Guildwood to The Doris McCarthy Trail. What is the meaning of this??? I endeavor to find out!

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Yule Walk

On December 21, 2014, the HPU hosted a Yule Walk (you’ve all heard of Christmas food/clothing “drives;” well, we are perambulators so we had a “walk” instead!)

The walk took place in Kirkendall neighbourhood – we perambulated the streets with our wagon and collected from numerous houses. Others also contributed to our efforts (via car) from as far as Ancaster, Dundas, Westdale, and Beasley neighbourhoods.

By the end of the walk we had two vehicles full of new toys, clothes, gift cards, food and other items to donate to The Native Women’s Centre.

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KM2 March Walks

Dates: March 1, March 8, March 15, March 22, 2014
Location: Hamilton Artists Inc. 155 James Street North, Hamilton, ON

The HPU’s winter project 2014 was entitled Km2, and consisted of 3 different directed walks within a square kilometre of Hamilton’s downtown. Each week’s event began with an artist talk by the walk leader, who showed some of her work as well as introduced the themes and objectives of the walk.

March 1: Map Voice Film Poem (led by Taien Ng-Chan)
Poet Ezra Pound observed that “In the city the visual impressions succeed each other, overlap, overcross, they are cinematographic.” The urban experience of unrelentless stimuli was what, for philosopher Walter Benjamin, created the need for cinema. Map Voice Film Poem explored the city through the microcinema of videos and stories. Participants were invited to map the city through the digital image. The final video was edited from the contributions of participants.

HPU Map Voice Film Poem from Hamilton Perambulatory Unit on Vimeo.

March 15: Search Gather Research Make (led by Donna Akrey)
Search Gather Research Make focused on the visual arts and how to forage the city for ideas to realize as art works. Participants were offered some directives and then embarked on a walk within the KM2; the participants gathered found materials/found ideas to use as art-making supplies or inspiration for new works. 

March 8: Flânerie Collect Contemplate Write (led by Sarah E. Truman)
Historically, the flâneurs were “men of leisure” who ambled through urban streets and observed, mused and wrote about the cityscape. In week 2’s Flânerie Collect Contemplate Write, participants strolled within the KM2 as modern day flâneurs (leisurely if only for an hour, and any gender, not just male!) and composed written works inspired through the acts of walking and sensory exploration of the city’s core.

March 22: Final get together share session (Hamilton Artists Inc.)
The works we made were exhibited to the public and other artists/creators in a final meeting

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Mall Walk