Project Overview
As large-scale construction on U of T’s Landmark Initiative continues around the Hart House Commons, a number of large tree-protection hoardings have inspired a public art project entitled Tree Protection Zone (TPZ).
The aptly named project features specially commissioned mural-sized works by eight Indigenous artists and their collaborators considering the preservation of life, water, and kin and how each is inextricably linked to the protection of trees.
This temporary public art project provides an opportunity to engage students and the wider public in essential conversations about the land and its people, and helps to set the stage for the permanent Indigenous Landscape project—an offshoot of the Landmark Initiative—that will be constructed on the Commons in Spring/Summer 2022.
The artists participating in the TPZ were supported by Student Assistants and emerging artists who benefited from the unique opportunity to closely engage with the artists’ processes, vision, and knowledge.
Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) was made possible by Presenting Partners including the Office of the Vice-President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, University of Toronto; the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (AMUT); Hart House; Indigenous Student Services; and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives at U of T. Additional project support was provided by the City of Toronto’s Arts and Culture Grant, and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) and U of T’s Postsecondary Education Fund for Aboriginal Learners (PEFAL).
Follow TPZ's progress
Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) was completed and open for public viewing on September 7, 2021. It will run until Spring/Summer 2022, at which the Indigenous Landscape Project will begin.
Curatorial team
Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) was curated by Mik Migwans, Assistant Professor and Curator of Contemporary Indigenous Art, AMUT, and Maria Hupfield, Assistant Professor Indigenous Digital Arts and Performance.
Mikinaak Migwans
Maria Hupfield
Featured artists
Eight invited artists and their collaborators employed traditional street art techniques and a variety of other applications, turning Hart House Commons into a celebration of the garden and trees, the buried waterway (Taddle Creek) that remains there under the soil, and the community that is centered here.
Que Rock; Manitou Nemeen; Quentin Commanda
Artwork title: Every Child Is Sacred
Susan Blight
Anishinaabe visual artist, filmmaker, and arts educator from Couchiching First Nation and Indigenous Student Life Coordinator at Indigenous Student Services, University of Toronto
Artwork title: 6 kilometres and 8000 years long
Carrie Hill
Artwork title: Tewarontanonhna (We guard the tree)
Taqralik Partridge & Nils Ailo Utsi
Artwork title: Meahcis / in the forest
Onaman Collective: Christi Belcourt & Isaac Murdoch
Artwork title: Protect the Sacred; Mother Earth Revolution
Shuvinai Ashoona
Artwork title: Composition (Octopus Transformation)
Presenting Partners
