shore/lines

shore/lines invites visitors to explore Toronto’s shifting waterfront, a landscape where permanence is a mirage. The installation consists of two concentric cylindrical screens: a fixed inner screen, and an outer one that visitors can gently rotate along a circular track. Each carries an abstract pattern derived from Toronto’s shoreline—the natural edge mapped in the 1793 Plan of York Harbour contrasted with the infilled and stabilized shoreline of today. As the screens and their shadows overlap, their interference produces a moiré effect, an ephemeral, emergent pattern that doesn’t truly exist on either screen. On bright winter days, the shadows extend the effect across the snow, amplifying the installation’s presence through light and motion. The illusion deepens and dissolves as the outer screen turns, echoing the city’s continual reshaping of land and water. Entry is possible only when patterns align, inviting reflection on how the boundaries we draw are only temporary.

*shore/lines was submitted for the 2026 Winter Stations installation in Toronto.