James March

"Our vanity, our passions, our spirit of imitation, our abstract intelligence, our habits have long been at work, and it is the task of art to undo this work of theirs, making us travel back in the direction from which we have come to the depths where what has really existed lies unknown within us.”

A study discerning myth and place through a cryptozoological lens. Place, as I understand it, refers to spaces that can be remembered, that we can imagine, hold in the mind and consider. They are territories that can be lived in with special satisfaction because they resonate with associations that engage our interest. Places bring memories to mind.

Whether it is intended, buildings, rooms, and areas of space may serve as grand mnemonic devices that possess the ability to record and transmit vital aspects of culture and history. Memories remain embedded in the form, remain to be unearthed, read, and decoded – however imperfectly or incorrectly. Memories may metamorphose into meaning over time. Cemeteries and memorials, as examples, are types of built environments that pursue meaning as part of their making, purposefully. This collection of images, originally produced for a gallery show in Mississauga, Ontario, explores the anthromorphism of such memories by embedding mythologies into cryptids, animals attached to certain places or areas whose existence is disputed.