BlankSpace Publications

What's in a Name?

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Glenwillow Fur Farm is an art project originating on a pioneer-era farm with a repurposed centennial farmhouse built in 1914. The location reflects our aesthetic and thematic focus, which explores how rural, urban, and natural environments intersect with obsolescence, vernacular ruin, and processes of decay to capture a unique, look-again quality in seemingly banal things. Glenwillow was the name of a hamlet located on Scotchmere Drive  between Thames and Mayfair roads. According to Jennifer Grainger's Vanished Villages of Middlesex, it is described as having many shops, including a store, barbershop and post office as far back as 1875. It disappeared around 1914 (the same year our farmhouse sprang up), and although evidence of Glenwillow's existence is relegated to the subsoil, some surrounding farms keep the name alive. Much of the studio's surrounding acreage exists as it did for the past 100+ years: an uninterrupted century-old pasture with nesting rare birds, colourful wild flowers, occasional hay bales and meandering cattle. However, the studio name was adopted from one of the former registered businesses run on the property, a pelting operation that included red foxes, silver foxes and raccoons, begun in 1931 shortly after the onset of the Great Depression. The name acknowledges the past operations of the space while giving it a new purpose, and  recognizes how cultural shifts influence nostalgic and traumatic perceptions of localized histories. To read more about our philosophical drive, visit our Haunted Landscapes project page.