Cryptids of Oughtnorot

Show Gallery | 2024

Cryptids of Oughtnorot was a public exhibit of visual art and thousands of words of accompanying lore, bringing to life an alternative history of Toronto spanning the last six decades. Fact, fiction and paranormal beings are woven together with real historical Toronto personalities like Johnny Lombardi, the so-called mayor of Little Italy. The exhibit combined traditional and digital illustration techniques to depict a secret ecosystem of cryptids connected to Toronto's municipal functions — like the Trashbindicoots that preside over waste management and the detritus of political apathy — and social issues intertwined with the city — like the spectral Realtorgeists of the Ethereal Estate that feed on ghost real estate and the runaway speculation of Toronto's epidemic housing crisis. Taken together, along with other cryptid factions like the Intersectaurs, Hogwylders and Piccimineers, Oughtnorot is a distorted mirror world of Toronto that I will continue to explore in upcoming instalments to be announced in the near future.