All that Sustains Us, 2021
Mixed Media Installation, Zine, Single-Channel Video
All that Sustains Us is a participatory project created by Mast Year Collective that invites community members to share stories of meals and recipes that evoke a vivid connection to a particular environment. We explore how food - from making, to sharing, to eating - is entwined and grounded in our environments both past and present. This zine is a result of slowly unfolding conversations, traded stories, and gestures of generosity.
All that Sustains Us is a participatory project created by Mast Year Collective that invites community members to share stories of meals and recipes that evoke a vivid connection to a particular environment. We explore how food - from making, to sharing, to eating - is entwined and grounded in our environments both past and present. This zine is a result of slowly unfolding conversations, traded stories, and gestures of generosity.
To be part of a residency whose theme is “Environment”, it is integral for us to acknowledge that we are situated on stolen land. Mast Year Collective is based on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe and the Huron-Wendat, who are the original owners and custodians of the land on which we stand and create.
The land we are situated on is part of the “Dish With One Spoon”, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land.
The land we are situated on is part of the “Dish With One Spoon”, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land.
Haudenosaunee scholar Ruth Koleszar-Green describes the agreement as neve taking more than we need, ensuring that we leave something for others and care for the land. As guests on this land we are also bound by this treaty and have a responsibility to uphold its intentions.
We invite you all to reflect on this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect, and consider how food can be a starting point to join the proverbial table to take care of one another and our collective futures.
We invite you all to reflect on this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect, and consider how food can be a starting point to join the proverbial table to take care of one another and our collective futures.
There is a Place for Us, 2020
Special Edition Hand Bound Book
There is a place for us takes an intimate look at the relationship between physical space, identity and belonging in constructing narratives around homeland. The works portray personal narratives, familial journeys and an ever-shifting understanding of home.
There is a place for us takes an intimate look at the relationship between physical space, identity and belonging in constructing narratives around homeland. The works portray personal narratives, familial journeys and an ever-shifting understanding of home.
The impact of migration in shaping identity and notions of belonging form the underlying throughline of these works. Interwoven, the imagery of landscapes, portraits and objects in these photographs become simultaneous agents existing inside and outside the respective histories and cultures of each artist, evoking both intimacy and a sense of disconnect.
The text from this series are snippets of conversations and interviews with Alexandra and Farihah’s parents.
i. Before I came to Canada, I thought, because I watched the news, the movies, that I’d be free...that this country is beautiful.
But they made everything up.
ii. I never talked about this because I don’t want to ruin your thoughts.
iiii. The more you know, the more despair you feel.
iv. You come here and you just hope.
v. Everything depends on the colour of your skin.
You remember that.
vi. You navigate through the difficult
But they made everything up.
ii. I never talked about this because I don’t want to ruin your thoughts.
iiii. The more you know, the more despair you feel.
iv. You come here and you just hope.
v. Everything depends on the colour of your skin.
You remember that.
vi. You navigate through the difficult
i. Guyana is the land of many waters & diverse bodies.
Complicated narratives flow downstream from the West Coast Demerara to the East Bank.
ii. They asked me to take an ESL test during my first year at university in Alberta. I wrote a letter to admin stating English is my mother tongue.
iii. I have never been here before yet there is a strong sense of familiarity about this space.
This is my grandmother’s home, my mother’s home, my home.
Complicated narratives flow downstream from the West Coast Demerara to the East Bank.
ii. They asked me to take an ESL test during my first year at university in Alberta. I wrote a letter to admin stating English is my mother tongue.
iii. I have never been here before yet there is a strong sense of familiarity about this space.
This is my grandmother’s home, my mother’s home, my home.
