False Creek’s liminal spaces reveal Vancouver as a paradox: a city priding itself on livability and natural beauty while both are undermined by capitalist urban modes of living. Despite a reformist, post-industrial identity, a colonial capitalist logic continues to create either disregarded, abandoned spaces or sterile, unaffordable ones.

My work explores the concept of urban sustainability, exposing contradictions between progressive efforts and the dominance of a predatory capitalism that prioritizes profit over people and planet. Amidst urban utopias, cracks emerge in the facade of urban sustainability, challenging the notion that our current built environments truly benefit communities and natural systems.

These photographs invite viewers to reflect on the boundary between “city” and “nature,” revealing in this artificial division a colonial imagination that shapes our relationship to land and each other. Locating this subconscious mode of thinking embedded in our urban design and lifestyles, these photographs challenge viewers to reconsider not only our built environments but also the ideological foundations of our society.

From these reflections can emerge, I hope, an openness to more diverse and localized expressions of urbanity, sustainability, and what constitutes a “good life.” Ultimately, this work calls for a reimagining of urban future—one attuned to more diverse ways of being and aligned with more progressive approaches to urban living.

2024