The Hissing Folly is a multidisciplinary installation that looks at Durham Region’s ecological landscape and poses critical questions around human relationships with invasive species, specifically phragmites. Phragmites (European common reed) is a perennial grass that spreads quickly and out-competes native species for water and nutrients. The plant was transported from its native home in Eurasia to North America and has been damaging ecosystems for decades including areas of Clarington and the wider Durham Region.

Through this artwork, the centuries-old tradition of folly-building has migrated from the UK to Canada along the same colonial route that brought phragmites from the old world to the new. 

The Hissing Folly considers phragmites as a historically valuable construction material with creative potential while foregrounding the risks posed by the plant to the ecosystems present in Clarington and the surrounding region. It reveals complex relations, mythologies, histories, and biologies that are entrenched in consumer and cultural industries. The work includes a soundscape based on field recordings made from within the phragmites patch harvested from Thickson's Woods Land Trust and is accompanied by video documentation of the process of making the work shown in the VAC’s main floor gallery.