ABSTRACT
In 2011, Nel mezzo del cammin is an ongoing series of wall-sized textile maps of walks in urban forests and green spaces, and comprises interpretations of five Canadian sites. The five urban forests and green spaces mapped are all within the greater metropolitan areas of Canada's two largest cities, Montreal and Toronto, both unceded First Nations' territory. Proximity would suggest that the green spaces are easy for people to enjoy. Maps have been developed across the ages as a way of representing, claiming, and navigating space. These days, maps are ubiquitous, on smartphone apps and GPS systems. The textile work of Nel Mezzo del Cammin has three aspects. They are: constructing a pieced foundation with bits of cloth, cut to scale, to represent landscape and built features of the map's environment; precisely rendering digital embroidery of texts duplicated from external map referents; and more expressively hand embroidering in a running stitch.
