La centrale, depuis la rive de Laval. Cet emplacement est prisé au printemps pour la pèche à l’alose savoureuse, espèce de poisson menacée par les barrages mais qui s’est adapté. On aperçoit les points saillants de l’environnement dans les photos aériennes de Jean-Pierre Bonin (voir le lien plus bas).

On voit aussi comment l’humain s’est adapté au milieu naturel de ce secteur de l’Archipel qui compte plusieurs caractéristiques topographiques : les rapides de Lachine, Le Sault au Recollet, les mille-îles, le Mont-Royal, la plaine.

Série impressionante photos aériennes de l’archipel de Hochelaga, particulièrement les ilês Jésus, les mille-îles ainsi que les îles de Montréal représente les facettes du système de ce qu’on appelle Montréal.

L’ami des ruines modernes était aussi intéressé par le patrimoine naturel du fleuve et de ses rives. La qualité de vie des citoyens et de leur environnement  faisaient partie des enjeux qui l’ont poussé à participer aux audiences de planification de la ville réservées aux citoyens

Les citernes sont toujours là, le long du fleuve et du canal de Lachine. On les laisse se faire transformer par les multiples interventions anonymes, et signées.

photo de Ronald Santerre, 2011, tirée du Mémorial de Philippe Côté.

Deux photos prises à quelques minutes d’intervalle – lumière du soleil couchant, 16h le samedi 10 décembre 2011, Rivière-des-prairies, Laval, Québec.

Dans cet espace vert sur la rive nord de la Rivière-des-prairies, vis-à-vis Cartierville, à Laval, je découvre une mare à canard, différentes structures de jeu progressistes :

des panneaux didactiques, beaucoup de sentiers, quelques passants dont presque tous à promener des chiens, on me raconte une anecdote, et j’entends une mère prévenir ses enfants de faire attention de ne jamais aller dans une direction pour ne pas croiser un monsieur pervers qui traîne de ce côté. Lorsque je demande si le parc se rend jusqu’au bord de l’eau, on me dit que oui, mais je dois quand même marcher longtemps avant d’y arriver. Je découvre que ce parc est grand.

Ci-dessous, finalement un accès à la rivière pour le lancement d’un canot :

Directement au nord de cet emplacement, à quelques rues, se trouve la galerie Verticale située dans un espace commercial. C. y est installée comme dans une vitrine.

Under the Bonaventure overpass

Après une journée complète, je prends une dernière photo… et son détail.

Borrowed view of sunrise, from bridge.

Tiles installed on the Des Seigneurs bridge, at St-Gabriel locks. Happy with the way they look, and satisfied by the positive response of Parks Canada staff, boaters, cyclists, I decide to leave the tiles in place. Not sure if they will withstand the wind. I’ve asked the nice worker to inform me if they start looking like hell.

My first stop is in Parc Côte St-Paul – I’m outdoors but still contained within its boundaries – I choose to install a few tiles along the border at the NE entrance of the square. As I’m trying to make the chartreuse coloured Lysimachia weep over the tiles,  I’m approached by a park dweller who asks if I’m an artist.

I inform him that I’m a painter and that I’m working with forms, colour and composition, as I take a step back to see the bigger picture, and check out the effect, until I decide that it looks nice.

He in turn informs me that he’s a sculptor, specializing for the last 25 years in the production of hand-sculpted ducks. I also learn that this craft is a highly regulated tradition that requires the hyper accurate reproduction of species, and stability in windy water conditions. Duck sculptors compete in regular events and winning sculptures become collectors items. He tells me about a rich boat builder who names all his yachts after the winning ducks of one sculptor that he then purchases for thousands of dollars, and displays in the cockpit, making each boat as unique as the original one-off sculpture.

I also learn about a famous duck master carver named Roger Desjardins who grew up in Verdun. I discover that Verdun, being so close to the river, has the best decoy carvers in the province.  Reproductions of his carvings are now mass produced in China and sold the world over. Through an exclusive licensing agreement with Ducks Unlimited, the sale of Desjardins’s ducks contribute to wildlife and environmental awareness?  After a lifetime of working in very frugal conditions, Roger Desjardins is now very wealthy.

The park dweller has so many stories about sculpting wood, including how long it took before a well known sculptor teacher would take him on as a pupil. When he was finally accepted, and after he finished his first duck sculpture, the teacher said that his duck would die of hunger because he had made his eyes looking in opposite directions, instead of making them focus downward, on what lay just ahead. He has been sculpting as a hobby for more than 40 years. His children recently collected pictures of all his sculptures and had them made into a book as a gift for his 70th birthday.

Later the same morning, I stop at the Charlevoix bridge with its diamond shaped structure. On my daily ride home from work, I have been curious to see what effect my tiles would have when installed in this light teal blue green suggestive motif.

After some hesitation – the bridge feels much more exposed to traffic and pedestrians than the park, and it bounces each time a truck crosses. The whole time I am there, only one person seems to notice, or care, by coming over and introducing himself and shaking my hand.

A thoroughfare, the bridge does not offer the same conditions for stepping back to look at the composition. I have to cross over to the other sidewalk, or risk standing in the traffic. Attaching the tiles with tie-wraps, I confuse the pattern.

I hope to do better tomorrow when I try the same thing on the Des Seigneurs bridge, a bit further down the path, on the way to Griffintown. I prefer the view from this side because  the lattice of the bridge is visible and nicely constrains the pattern.

I have done enough for the 1st day of this excursion whose destination I may never reach because of the numerous encounters and distractions that will steer me away from the initial plan.

D’autres continuent d’intégrer des connaissances de diverses disciplines pour produire une nouvelle représentation cartographiée de la géographie des Rapides de Lachine. The writing is too interesting to be left illegible. I will transcribe the text for easy reading because it is super interesting.

Mapping Watery Relations at the Lachine Rapids

Movements of water join us with others – with other humans and with a multitude and diversity of other entities, including plankton and fish, plants and birds, minrals and metals, chemincals and paharmaceuticals, and complex hybrid settelements upstream and downstream (benthic, lotic, riparian, and human).

Mapping is one way to understand our relationship with water – to place water and ourselves. Given that maps are never unbiased, mapping may be thoughtfully revisited as a messy and collective process that helps us negotiate common ground and share common waters.

Perhaps we might begin by turning this map around so that upstream (not north) is at the top of the page. (Cecilia Chen)

J’ai toujours imaginé le voyage en canot autour de l’île de Montréal comme une circonvolution, dans la mesure du possible, dans l’intégrité de la forme de l’île. C’était un cadre dicté par la forme. Or, l’île qui a déjà été sillonée de ruisseaux, permettait qu’on puisse emprunter différents chemins pour se rendre à destination. Supposons que le réseau routier d’aujourd’hui offre autant (sinon plus) de raccourcis, j’ai la possibilité de faire plus d’expéditions au bord de l’eau en moins de temps. Le projet de circonvolution se complique et devient autre chose. Du coup, les objectifs du projet, et son système de valeurs sous-jacent doivent être reconsidérés…