I AM YOUR RELATIVE is a multi-purpose installation featuring fifteen moveable stages that will populate the first floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. Co-commissioned by MOCA and the Toronto Biennial, the surface of the stages become an archive over time as they are covered with posters that incorporate text and images from local historical archives and from the public. Drawing on material collected through an open call, Jeffrey’s wheat-pasted posters create a visual archive that prioritizes Indigenous, Black, Brown and queer voices, speaking to what histories are remembered and how.
The project catalyzes valuable community and professional creative relationships that will inform moments of activation throughout the run of the project. Over the course of the exhibition, the stages are host to artists’ performances, talks, workshops, and gatherings that amplify community voices past and present and are supported through robust research, coordination, and production. Recordings of many of the events go on to form a permanent and broadly accessible archive.
I AM YOUR RELATIVE builds on the methods of recent commissions for the deCordova Sculpture Park and Socrates Sculpture Park, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House (2020/2021). These monumental public works, with their pyramidal form, invited the same communal ethos as Jeffrey carved out space for Indigenous performance, collaboration, and co-creation. A stage becomes a platform for raising voices and unearthing hidden histories. The tri-layered form references the earthen forms of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, located in contemporary Illinois, which flourished from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries before European contact.
I AM YOUR RELATIVE is co-commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and MOCA Toronto. This project is generously supported by Multiplex.
Audio Didactic:
Bio
Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw-Cherokee, born in 1972, Colorado, USA; lives in Hudson, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Hudson, New York. His artworks reference various aesthetic and material histories rooted in Indigenous cultures of the Americas and modern and contemporary subcultures. Jeffrey’s work has been featured in exhibitions in North America and abroad and can be found in public and private collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Denver Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. In 2019, Jeffrey was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
- Accessibility
Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto
Accessible entrance and washrooms
Accessible ramps / elevators
AODA compliant building - Getting There
Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto
By Transit
Subway: We are conveniently located near Lansdowne and Dundas West Station on the Bloor subway line. From either station, we are a 10-minute walk away.
Streetcar: The closest streetcar stop is at Dundas St. West and Sterling Rd., which can be reached by the 505 Dundas and 506 Carlton streetcars. The museum is a 5-minute walk north from the stop.
UP Express: The UP Express is Toronto’s rail link between Toronto Pearson Airport and Union Station. MOCA is located nearby Bloor Station. From Pearson, it is two stops away and from Union Station, it is only one stop away. From Bloor Station, we are located 10-minutes away on foot.
By Bike or Foot
Just behind MOCA is the West Toronto Railpath. Running north-south between Dupont St. and Dundas St. West, the Railpath is the perfect place to walk or bike. You can access MOCA from the Railpath via a pathway between MOCA and Henderson Brewery.
You may also walk along Sterling Rd. to reach MOCA’s front entrance.
There is bike parking on the east side of Sterling Rd.
By Car
MOCA can be accessed from Sterling Rd.
The nearest Green P parking lots are at Dundas St. and Roncesvalles Ave., Bloor St. and Lansdowne Ave. (northeast corner), and Margueretta St. and Bloor St.
Limited paid parking can be found across MOCA.
Partners
