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In this episode of the Ecologies in Practice podcast, host Ashar Mobeen speaks with Katie Lawson, a curator and writer based in Toronto. They explore Katie’s journey in curatorial practice, her deep connection to water, and how it informs her work. The discussion delves into her major projects, and evolving perspective on the relationship between geology and water.

Bio: Katie is a curator and writer based in Toronto. She has curated exhibitions at Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery; Images Festival; Toronto Biennial of Art; MacLaren Art Centre; the Art Museum at the University of Toronto; the Art Gallery of Ontario; Y+ Contemporary, and RYMD Reykjavik (2017). Lawson was awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation Fogo Island Arts Young Curator Residency in 2023.  She is currently working towards a PhD in Art and Visual Culture at Western University, with an interest in contemporary art and climate change.

Transcript PDF

Links:

Katie’s Website: https://www.katieblawson.com

Select projects discussed:

erratic behaviour: https://www.katieblawson.com/copy-of-all-flourishing-is-mutual

what the water knows, the land remembers: https://www.katieblawson.com/copy-of-the-shoreline-dilemma-1

shoreline dilemma: https://www.katieblawson.com/the-shoreline-dilemma

All flourishing is mutual: https://www.katieblawson.com/all-flourishing-is-mutual

Learning from the lake: https://www.katieblawson.com/learning-from-the-lake

City of Barrie, Seeds to Sow: https://www.barrie.ca/community-recreation-environment/arts-culture/public-art/seeds-sow-exhibition#:~:text=Seeds%20to%20Sow%20featured%20six,symbol%20of%20hope%20and%20potential.

Additional reading:

Katie Lawson, “What Water Knows”, in Water, Kinship, Belief (Toronto: Toronto Biennial of Art with Art Metropole, 2022). https://www.katieblawson.com/_files/ugd/e806cc_8ce2887abe30426880339cee66529db5.pdf

Katie Lawson, “A Series of Returns: Indigenous Land, Water and Food Sovereignty in Contemporary Art”, in La Escuela__Journal N°1. Hydrocommons Cultures: Art, Pedagogy and Care Practices across the Americas, 2024. https://www.katieblawson.com/_files/ugd/e806cc_7ced5813443d441fbb868d70626671a4.pdf

Ange Loft, Indigenous Context, https://torontobiennial.org/indigenous-context/
Astrida Neimanis, Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017).