Live in Toronto but don't want to miss out on Myseum Presents: Discounted Histories exhibit & programming in Mississauga? Register to take our free Myseum shuttle bus from downtown Toronto to Mississauga for artist Shellie Zhang's, Aesthetic of Surfaces exhibit at the Bradley Museum and artist Bonnie Devine's exhibit, Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig at the Art Gallery of Mississauga .

Shuttle Schedule:

12:45pm - Registration/Check-In

1:00 pm - Depart Toronto Media Arts Centre

2:00 pm - Arrive at Bradley Museum for Aesthetic of Surfaces exhibit

2:30 pm - Depart Bradley Museum

3:00 pm - Arrive at Art Gallery of Mississauga for Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig exhibit

4:00 pm - Depart Art Gallery of Mississauga, return to Toronto Media Arts Centre

5:30 pm - Arrive at Toronto Media Arts Centre

*Please note, these times are estimates and are subject to change with traffic

Registration/Pick-up & Drop-off Location Instructions: The Toronto Media Arts Centre pick-up and drop-off location is located at 32 Lisgar Street (Toronto Media Arts Centre's Main Entrance, outside the doors of OMG coffee).

About The Aesthetic of Surfaces:

Shellie Zhang's Aesthetic of Surfaces examines the many ways that complex notions of identity and place are translated or mistranslated through mass produced goods. Zhang's series of images and vinyl wallpaper installations depict merchandise collected from Chinatowns and ornate Chinese floral motifs that comment on the markers of femininity and exoticism that are perpetuated by mundane objects. This project leads us to questions of intention, cultural exchange and who has the power to culturally borrow from whom.

The Museum of Mississauga would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

About Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig

All of existence is comprised of circles, lines and patterns, replicating the curves, depths and peaks of the earth's surface. As we navigate our daily commute within the limits of the bustling cityscape, we often forget that the beauty of the land and its resources have been documented, divided, parceled and seized. We've attached wealth and ownership to land that was spoken for hundreds and hundreds of years before even the first boat arrived on our shores. We've become accustomed to using tools such as mobile GPS and navigation systems, yet forget that the now lost beauty of cartography was also used as a tool in the colonization of Indigenous people.

To strengthen the perceptions of land dispossession, Indigenous sovereignty, treaties and the loss of the homelands of the Michi Saagiig, artist Bonnie Devine uses their land-based research, and cultural knowledge to rebalance historical narratives using visual representations, focusing on two basic geometric forms: the circle and the line.

Linear approaches to reason, measurement, and proprietary notions of land ownership are embedded in the boundary lines drawn on maps, laid out with precision and plotted to this day in the roads, cityscapes and territorial boundaries that form a grid over this region. The circle, on the other hand, is non-linear, inclusive, protective, and embracing; modelled not on an abstract notion of logical progression but on visual evidence such as, the bowl of the horizon, the circle of the sky, and the cycle of the seasons.

Focusing on the interest, aesthetics and contrast of interpretations represented by these two simple forms, Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig visually narrates how these differing approaches resulted in massive land losses in the homelands of the Michi Saagiig.

Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig aims to honour the relationships between the two original land occupiers and inhabitants; the Mississaugas and the Haudenosaunee: both evicted, sovereign Nations with thousands of years of intellectual knowledge and unwavering protection, and relationship to the land.

Through the combination of a series of scrolls, maps, media, and braided reeds, Circles and Lines: Michi Saagiig aims to reconnect and ground us on the traditional territory and land we benefit from, live on, and call home.

Please note:

-Event will take place rain or shine. In case of cancellation or changes, we will try our best to provide ample notice prior to the event via email and through the Myseum of Toronto social media channels.

-The shuttle bus is not wheelchair accessible.

If you have any accessibility needs, requirements, or require any additional assistance please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.