Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper will explore the efforts of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s (AGO) 2018 reinstallation of the J.S. McLean Centre to interrogate cultural hegemony in Canadian narratives— centering Indigenous, female, and other underrepresented voices. The works of Glenn Coulthard, Adele Perry, Leanne Simpson, and Julie Tomiak will inform my understanding of urban space as an important site in the deconstruction of settler–colonial narratives, and the power of institutions that reproduce such narratives. First, I will examine the exhibition within the context of the AGO’s history and inclusion (or exclusion) of Indigenous and other minoritized representations. Second, I will analyze how curation is used to destabilize colonial knowledge both in its visual elements and its process. How does this work deconstruct dominant narratives of Canadian history, reeducating Canadian publics through creative reinterpretation? Third, I will consider the physical, ideological, and emotional limits of the McLean Centre, emphasizing that transformative resistance from within the institution requires continuous effort. Drawing on Coulthard’s understanding of the ‘politics of recognition,’ I argue that the recognition of the voices at the McLean Centre is not the goal, but the beginning of a conversation that seeks to dismantle the roots of Western, heteropatriarchal colonialism. While the reinstallation does much to unsettle settler experiences of Canadian Art History, the work of Indigenous resurgence and resistance to colonial cities like Toronto is far from settled.