“By Rail” is half an expansive meta-project about the westernmost front of Western civilization. It follows lines of infrastructure throughout the geo-cultural bloc of Canada and the United States; its partner project “By Sea” traces a geographic contour around it. Both series are entered in this competition. These works negotiate a rift between the discourse of critique and wide-eyed wonder. Images Selected for Submission: “Canal, Cleveland OH, 2008”, “Loop Canyon, Chicago IL, 2007”, “Suburb, London ON, 2007”, “Trailer Park, Wendover UT, 2008”, “The Coaster, Del Mar CA, 2008”
Reaching from arctic to sub-tropical latitudes and straddling the world's longest non-militarized border, Anglo-America is a geo-cultural bloc of a Cold War superpower and an outpost of the British Empire. “By Rail†considers the landscape and built environment of Canada and the United States by exploring their rail infrastructure; it describes the armature these nations were built upon and evokes contradictory narratives of romantic expansionism and post-colonial, post-industrial malaise.
North America is a product of railways. With independence, the US evolved from colonial economy to national mercantile society; canals facilitated early trade but the advent of railroads made a bi-coastal nation plausible. In Canada confederation was contingent upon an Atlantic-Pacific link. Immigrants, Civil War veterans, and raw Chinese labour broke through mountains and laid tracks. European railways connect historic centres, but here cities emerged from hinterland whistle-stops and imported populations displaced native inhabitants. This civilization has been uniquely affected by railways' sweeping command of the landscape, and our disdainful dismissal of them today is unique amongst developed nations. Japan still refines “Bullet Trains†as Toyota dominates its market, Deutsche-Bahn is enjoying record profits this year, and China has undertaken a massive railway expansion. In contrast, we nurse a limp auto sector, unfurl more sprawl and harvest branch lines for scrap steel. Railways were crucial in our golden age, yet the notion of riding with others to common destinations now repels us like some Socialist bogeyman. This infrastructure simultaneously conjures welling pride and hysterical threat. It's no coincidence that a polarized citizenry demanding both change and retrogression elected a multi-racial president who was the first in decades to ride a train into Washington. “By Rail†portrays this negotiation between illustrious past and uncertain future.