A NECESSARY FICTION: MY CONVERSATION WITH GEORGE HUNTER AND EDWARD S. CURTIS

JUNE 29 – AUGUST 27, 2017

A Necessary Fiction extends Jeff Thomas’s engagement with image-makers who have used Indigenous people as the subjects of their work, interrogating the relevance of such work in light of today’s self-determination movement. Employing the work of both George Hunter and Edward S. Curtis as a catalyst, Thomas presents an alternative to the hegemonic and static narratives they both construct and reinforce. Thomas explores the role such archival images have played in the quest to de ne his place in the world, and aims to reshape the space of the gallery and the collections held therein into a locus for reimagining both the representation and lived experience of Indigenous peoples.

With works on-loan from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada

The Art Gallery of Mississauga is a guest upon the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. This ancient land is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabe, Wendat, and Haudenosaunee nations.