Description

Currents, a permanent site-specific artwork by Cheryl Pagurek, was commissioned by the City of Ottawa's Public Art Program for the Market Place Transit Station. Currents employs the medium of video to embody the concepts of flow, movement, and community identity. A free-standing LED screen features video imagery of the Jock River, its currents, reflections, and seasonal changes, maintaining a link to the nearby body of water in an area of rapid urban development. Through the incorporation of historical images of the area, Currents celebrates the surrounding environment while commemorating times past. By locating the present site within a continuum, the video harkens to the past and preserves the present for future generations.

Acknowledgements

The historical images in Currents were drawn from many sources:

Map of Nepean Township, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Carleton, 1879, courtesy of the City of Ottawa Archives/ ALO 0034. Photograph of road gang at Monaghan's, Fallowfield, Nepean Township, ca. 1880, courtesy of the City of Ottawa Archives/ MG177/CA-17000. Photograph of snow removal with two horse team and hand-held plow, ca. 1920, courtesy of the City of Ottawa Archives/ 38D85/CA-7588.

The following photographs appear courtesy of the Nepean Museum: Jockvale Public School, 1906 and 1889; The James Long Farm; Fallowfield Separate School #7; Fallowfield Churches on "Piety Hill", Steeple Hill, ca.1910; Fallowfield Presbyterian Church (St. John's).

The following photographs appear courtesy of the Goulbourn Museum: Cheese factory, ca. 1920; Team and wagon; Plowing with team of horses, 1930; Three women in a canoe, 1910's; Joshua Bradley homestead, ca. 1890; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dawson binding; Ploughing bee, 1928; Spring ice break-up, Jock River, Richmond, 1920; Jock River flooding, Richmond, 1925.

The following photographs appear courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum: Cultivating with horse-drawn equipment; Farmer sowing seeds with a horse-drawn seeder, 1927; Farmer driving a tractor in a field; Canadian Northern Railway steam Locomotive no. 74 and passenger train, ca. 1920; Loading cans onto Canadian Northern boxcar, ca. 1926; CNR Merivale flag station, 1969; CNR tracks at Twin Elm, 1971; CNR Steam locomotive 5304, ca. 1915; Train in snow, 1934.

Thank you also to these families with roots in the area for sharing their photographs: to Taylor Kennedy for the use of the Kennedy family photograph, 1909, as well as the 1929 map of the Jockvale area and anecdotes from Desmond Kennedy's The Kennedy Story; and to the family of Bob Mann for the use of the photographs of Bob and his family, and the photograph of the cow-crossing that straddles the Jock River.

Thank you to Marsha and Spruce Riordon, and to Jim and Heather Fogo for allowing access to the banks of the Jock River from their property, and to Kel-Jo Farms, the subject of several panoramic views. Thank you also to Al Lewis and Bytown or Bust at www.bytown.net for local history, and to Dave Knowles for railroad history of the area.