Not From Here
2013
Performance
2 days
Not From Here was a performance about space and place at different scales of time. It is a performance of urban and individual identity via the universal motivations of the tourist: learning about the history and people of a place by moving through it.
To learn about Mississauga, Ontario, the artist, a pedestrian inhabitant of New York City, set out to procure all of the original items used to purchase its land from the Mississauga Nation: Felt hats, silver vessels, wool blankets, lace, and wine. The artist began at Square One, the so-named central retail shopping mall that shares a parking lot with Mississauga City Hall. Finding none of the objects at Square One, the artist took advice from the public about where she might procure the items. The artist, who did not own or drive a car, set out, on foot, from Square One, to walk through Mississauga searching for the goods.
After two days of walking, the artist, exhausted from over 30 miles of walking, to procure as many of the original items used to tempt the Mississaugas out of their land in hopes of buying the land back for them, instead, abandoned the items on the steps of Mississauga City Hall.
Instead, the artist wrote an open letter to the leaders of Mississauga—a critique of the city's placelessness—that summarized her experiences. The letter was never sent.
PROJECT CREDITS
Commissioned by: The Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto at Mississauga
Exhibition: Door to Door, 5th Edition
Photography: Courtesy Blackwood Gallery