patch/work
July 205 - November 2025
The Plumb, Toronto, ON
In the cool, damp basement of the Plumb, alongside friends and strangers,
I separate root from stalk from leaf.
patch/work consists of fifty sheets of sewn-together paper, made from phragmites (Phragmites australis), a so-called “invasive” plant species, foraged from a grove along the Grand River. To produce the paper for this work, I processed phragmites by cutting, soaking, boiling, crushing, and blending, to break down stalk fibres into pulp. Reflecting on communal ways of craft production, I facilitated two drop-in plant processing sessions at the Plumb, alongside artists Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby, in which I shared this laborious process of transforming phragmites into pulp with workshop participants. Considering various scales, from a singular plant stalk to a patch of grass to a watershed, my work uses “invasive” plant species and papermaking as a means to foster a more expansive relationship with the landscapes I inhabit.
Curated by Emerald 邹佑
Documentation courtesy of Em Moor, Elena Kirby, and Masumi Rodriguez.
Installation and fabrication support from Maddie Gnam and Melody Lu.
An additional thank you to workshop attendees for processing phragmites with me.