A piece of land sat not far from my studio in the Marconi-Alexandra district of Montreal. It was an industrial neighbourhood in transition. When I arrived in my studio loft, the area was in decline, factories closing, then one day, I discovered an abandoned railway link that had been owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Its rails ran through the sector for years, cutting the community off, isolating east from west. The tracks were eventually removed and with it, an odd shaped piece of land was left behind. Inevitably, nature began to reassert itself. Over time, a variety of plants and animals reclaimed the land along a forgotten railway spur. Walking along its bumpy path, you were suddenly transported back to a lost wild oasis, hidden from view by large concrete factories - an industrial landscape was being transformed. I called it, Gorilla Park. It was left to grow wild, like an urban jungle. The gorillas were hidden from view. Sometimes people planted vegetable gardens, created guerilla art-installations, pitched tents, but mostly the community used it as one of its only green spaces in a highly mineralized sector. The oasis offered shade, a place to contemplate nature, and to stand in awe while listening to the leaves rustling through the old-growth trees. In essence, it was a well-kept secret urban forest inside a community that desperately needed a green space. One day in May, 2013, everything changed when a greedy real-estate developer bulldozed all of our dreams into a wasteland. The residents took action and thus began my journey towards helping to re-wild Gorilla Park! After over ten years of activism, our Gorilla Park was finally inaugurated by Les AmiEs du Parc des Gorilles, the City of Montreal, and myself, on September 24, 2024. Incidentally, we inaugurated our park on the International Day of the Gorilla! Vive Le Parc des Gorilles!

These paintings, writings and information articles are a testament to what’s possible when ordinary citizens unite in a common goal to reclaim and rewild an environment in order to make a corner of urban life more livable, humane and environmentally durable for generations to come. Parc des Gorilles - Gorilla Park was finally replanted and inaugurated in 2024 by the city of Montreal along with Les AmiEs du Parc des Gorilles and myself, after over ten years of activism, patience and persistence. The struggle it seemed was only just beginning for me.