10/03/2026
Traces & Echoes: Between Places
Michelle Breslin & Barbara Greczny
Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 7, 7-9pm
Sept. 8 – Nov. 27, 2026
Monday -Thursday, 9am-10pm
Friday, 9am-6pm
Saturday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm
Some places stay with us long after we've left them. A stretch of shoreline. The blur of trees from a car window. Light shimmering on a lake at dusk.
Traces & Echoes: Between Places is a collaborative installation by artists Michelle Breslin and Barbara Greczny. Through moving images and sound, they explore Ontario's forests, roadsides, waterways, and skies as places where memory quietly surfaces. Born from conversations about their parallel explorations of Ontario's landscapes, the exhibition evolved collaboratively, with each artist creating work rooted in her own experience.
Michelle Breslin's work grew out of grief and the search for connection. Returning to the Toronto Islands, The Leslie Spit, and other places that hold personal weight, she created moving imagery and composed the exhibition's soundscape, allowing remembrance to unfold gradually, in layers, and at its own pace. Her wanderings and work developed alongside Greczny's parallel explorations of memory and landscape.
Barbara Greczny's video was created over several years of road trips with her brother and children. Filmed mostly from a moving vehicle, it captures roadsides, waterways, shifting light, and the quiet moments in between. After a painful estrangement from her brother, these familiar landscapes became charged with absence as much as presence. Woven together with photographs, the work reflects on memory, loss, and the traces relationships leave on the landscape.
The videos and soundscape unfold independently, occasionally intersecting in unexpected ways. This non-linear narrative leaves space for personal reflection. Together, the artists create an environment to reflect on memory, place, and the connections that endure between them.
Traces & Echoes was originally presented as a photography, video, and sound installation during the CONTACT Photography Festival at Beaver Hall Gallery, Toronto, in May 2026. This presentation reimagines the project through moving image and sound, continuing its exploration of landscape, memory, loss, and human connection.
The original presentation of Traces & Echoes was supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.
