Mississauga is a challenging place for hosting contemporary art. With a handful of small commercial galleries, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Blackwood Gallery at UTM and Laidlaw Hall at the Living Arts Centre, the scene is limited. In fact, dare I say, there really is no scene in Mississauga. Unfortunately. Since I grew up in Mississauga, I've seen the city grow and grow and grow, but the cultural scene has remained virtually stagnant. I'd be happy to engage in an argument about it, in fact!
Until now.
Christof Migone, Director/Curator of Blackwood Gallery conceived The Projects: PORT CREDIT as an off-site exhibition highlighting the construction and possibly even the cultural boom of Port Credit (in my opinion, the most picturesque and dynamic area in the City of Mississauga). This year, 10 artists (including, Claudio Ghirardo, Cheryl Rondeau, Gwen MacGregor and Peter Flemming) were invited to create their reflections of a changing city. The artists explored public transit, bicycle routes, public sculpture, graffiti and the act of commemoration.
Set in a condo building's sales office, the exhibition itself on a whole could have been better executed. Arriving at the office, I wasn't sure if I was in the right place as in fact, there were sales agents on site presenting plans to prospective buyers who also did not know about the intervention. Perhaps this unobtrusive intervention and its subtlety is what makes the exhibition itself successful.
My favourite work by Mississauga resident, Sonja Hidas was titled Large Items. Sonja was commenting on the fact that the City of Mississauga does not have a public art policy in place. By taking used appliances and using them as a canvas for text-based interventions that meditate on domestic life and essentially look at the issue of public art within the cultural development of Mississauga. The items were place in a parking space on the private property of this condo office. Sonja commented that it is often that we look at discarded items that are placed at the end of people's driveways. These ARE the public sculptures of Mississauga. Sonja quietly, but effectively comments on Mississauga's missing cultural link.
Bring it on! As a cultural stakeholder of Mississauga, I welcome more and more contemporary art and installations within this city!
PS - I saw the exhibition on Sunday, June 27th. On Tuesday, June 29th, Sonja Hidas' Large Items were reported missing and haven't been seen since. I think this is Mississauga's first cultural crime! Will these art thief's be caught?
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