About the exhibition
When art evolves through a sensitivity to materials and care for the environment, it can
illuminate the implications of our day-to-day behaviours as consumers and urban dwellers. In I’ve
Been Here Before, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation artist Cathie Jamieson and Barrie-based
artist Jill Price share their land-based practices, which are both grounded in mindfulness and a
commitment to opening up conversations around our collective responsibility to protect the
earth.
Jamieson’s work is informed by ancestral Indigenous knowledge of harvesting materials in
accordance with natural laws. Through a series of installations using supplies carefully gathered
on her Manitoulin Island forest property, such as tree bark and branches, plants, and florals, she
brings elements and gestures connected to her teaching practice and healing workshops into the
gallery. By centring the medicinal properties and symbolic meanings of these materials, she
offers a space for learning and reconnection.
Price’s work considers methods of unmaking systems of harm rooted in colonialism and global
industrial capitalism. Her sculptural installations derive from discarded materials she has
collected along Ontario shorelines, which are then cleaned, reused, recycled, and repurposed.
Informed by a childhood spent along the shores of Lake Ontario and by a sense of ecological
urgency, her work reflects the understanding that, in the artist’s words, “environmental harm is
not abstract but deeply intimate and shaped by daily consumption and discard.”
Jamieson and Price share important areas of connection in their distinct practices, both of which
invite viewers to reflect on ways of generating acts of care and repair toward the land.
Ultimately, I’ve Been Here Before evolves from an understanding that the living systems that
sustain and surround us are not passive resources, but active relations whose well-being is
deeply entwined with our own.
Curated by AGM Senior Curator Shannon Anderson
Cathie Jamieson gives thanks to the traditional knowledge and stories of the land that have been shared
over the years by Randy Trudeau and the Trudeau Family of Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island.
The artists would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for their support.
The Art Gallery of Mississauga gratefully acknowledge the support and generosity of our funders: the City of Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, TD Bank Group, Rama Gaming House and Charitable Gaming Community Good.
We warmly invite you to join us for the opening reception on Thursday May 7 from 6 pm to 8 pm.
Funders
The Art Gallery of Mississauga wishes to thank the following funders for their generous support:
