Vivian Wong has hosted public and local school workshops, creating this series of leaping salmon that represent the power of collaboration.

Artist Statement

Title: Salmo salar: The Once and Future Fish

Salmo salar: The Once and Future Fish is crowd-sourced art, created by many in public workshops and local schools, to represent the power of collaboration.

The salmon running in the Don River in the fall are Chinook salmon, introduced for sport fishing decades ago. The salmon formerly abundant in our home waters, the Atlantic salmon (known as “The Leaper”) is now extinct in Ontario. Each spring the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry stocks the headwaters of Toronto streams with a genetic relative in the thousands, but each fall only one or two come back to spawn.

For Salmo salar to come home, it needs the collaboration of regional organizations and municipalities to address toxic run-off, physical barriers, and invasive species in the food chain.

Bringing back the native salmon may be a nostalgic wish, but re-creating a habitat that can sustain it is a worthwhile goal that will, along the way, restore equilibrium to Lake Ontario.

– Vivian Wong

About the Artist

Vivian Wong is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator and workshop facilitator.

Vivian loves to collaborate, and as founder of Wabi-Sabi Collective she has animated spaces like Nuit Blanche Toronto and Gladstone Grow Op with interactive and ephemeral installations and community art.

Vivian is drawn to projects that engage children in conceptual art, and in her installation art practice she often mixes upcycled and recycled materials with natural and found objects.

As member of Great Lakes Trust, she engages in citizen science and art projects that promote stewardship of our waters and shorelines.

Vivian teaches yoga and is always up for a paddle or run.

Project Collaborators

Ryan Ness, Senior Manager, Watershed Strategies, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)