border crossings: travelling along the in between

JUNE 28 – AUGUST 26, 2018

Guest-curated by Sharada Eswar and Sonja Rainey. Developed in collaboration with and featuring the work of the Mississauga communities

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 28, 6 – 9 PM

Chief Stacey LaForme will open the exhibition with a prayer and a poem honouring our waterways at 6:45 PM, followed by a performance by percussionist and composer Germaine Liu at 7 PM

As humans we are bound together by our intimate connection to water and our ability to create and communicate through story. Water and stories are vital veins that bind us together. border crossings: travelling along the in between points to these waters and speaks to the powerful role that the they play waterways play in our lives—it’s both a place of encounter between cultures and also a border and barrier to movement.

What then can we create that permits our stories to stay afloat, find each other and connect, shift and change the landscape of our collective understanding? The exhibition points to these waters. Through interactive workshops, we seek to hold space for the stories of our experiences: to explore our own narratives in new ways, to listen deeply, to interact, and to find new and ever-shifting connections. The liquid energies of these waters whose exterior is finite in size is designed to be aninfinite holding place for history and memory. It mirrors the echo of the ripples and provides support for the  a multiplicity of experiences offered. The vessels reference the artefacts of what lingers, of what is remembered; buoyant navigational markings that hold these timeless stories.

Afloat in these metaphorical waters, swimming against the current is the storyteller—who speaks of myth, family, life, borders, cliffs and crossings. The story is simply this: each one of us has the capability and the potent energy to transform our own life, to learn, to act, to care, to be humane and to share, push and shift boundaries.

The exhibition is an ongoing invitation to share, create and let the water support, carry, bless and or cleanse our stories. Join us for a hands-on clay vessel and story workshop to add your voice to the waters.

Listen to the waters. Feel the undercurrents. Hear the stories. Leave a story.

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PROGRAMMING

border crossings: Making Story Vessels: Saturday, June 30, 2018, July 7, 21, 28 & August 4, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

A storytelling and ceramic workshop with Sharada Eswar, Sonja Rainey and Miranda Sharp. Join us at the Art Gallery of Mississauga for an afternoon of exploration and expression around the themes of border crossings. In this workshop, participants will be encouraged to explore and express their own differing and intersecting border crossing stories. Using word and story prompts, sigils and visual storytelling participants will make and paint their own ceramic ‘story bowls”

Registration required on Eventbrite. No prior experience needed. All art supplies will be provided.

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Image above: Miranda Sharp, border crossings, 2018. Courtesy of the artist. 

The Art Gallery of Mississauga gratefully acknowledges the support of Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, Pottery Supply House, and the Credit Valley Conservation.