Humanizing Our Communities with Art and Design

Wednesday, November 3 at 1:00 p.m.
Free online event; click here for full information and registration

This event includes ASL interpretation

Accompanying Onsite Gallery’s current exhibition, Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience, this online panel moderated by Michael Piper of the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty will present and discuss practices of collaboration, creation, and community research that aim to address systemic issues of oppression, with speakers including artist Cindy Blažević (Toronto, ON); Jessica Kirk, Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism (Toronto, ON); Rowan Lynch, Hearth (Toronto, ON); and Derrick Meeking, Empowerment Plan (Detroit, MI). Presented in partnership with John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.

Program partner:

Image: (above L-R) Michael Piper, Jessica Kirk, Hearth Garage; (below L-R) Derrick Meeking, Cindy Blažević

Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience

Until December 11, 2021
Curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg, Art Works for Change

Onsite Gallery, OCAD University
199 Richmond St. W. Toronto

Ours is a world in flux. Extreme weather events are propelling governments, cities, developers, designers and others to question our ability to confront and survive the repercussions of climate change, natural disasters and other shocks to our communities. As we face increasingly unpredictable environmental conditions, many of the world’s poorest residents are at risk of drought, sea level rise, and the loss of habitat that supports fishing, farming, and other livelihoods.

Art Works for Change invited visionary architects and artists to consider artistically interpretative solutions and prototypes for survival shelter. In Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience, science, technology, architecture, and art converge in a quest for resilience: What does it take to survive and thrive amid a changing climate? How can we address the needs of the world’s most vulnerable citizens? Through a variety of innovative ideas — high-tech and low-tech, extravagant, and affordable — the exhibition begins to address the challenges of excess heat, droughts, flooding, food insecurity, homelessness, mass violence, biological disaster, and earthquake.

Featuring works by:

Mitchell Joachim and Terreform ONE, Mary Mattingly, Vincent Callebaut, Chris Jordan, Thomas L. Kelly, Liam Kelly, The Empowerment Plan, Phil Ross, Pedro Reyes, ZO-loft Architecture and Design, William McDonough + Partners, Achim Menges, Andrew Maynard Architects, Tina Hovsepian, Alejandro Aravena, Jenny Sabin and Eric Ellingsen Studio Lab: Jingyang Liu Leo, Kevin Jin He and Won Ryu, Peta Feng and Malgorzata Pawlowska, Davison Design: Zhou Ying and Niu Yuntao, Journeyman Pictures, IKEA Foundation and UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency)

This exhibition was organized by Art Works for Change, Inc., with generous support from the Simpson Strong-Tie, National Endowment for the Arts and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Full exhibition info

Gallery visits must be booked in advance; click here to book your visit!
COVID-19 screening and protocols are in effect.

Gallery Hours
Wednesday to Friday: 12 to 7 p.m.
Saturday: 12 to 5 p.m.

Gallery admission and all events are free.
Everyone is welcome.

Onsite Gallery is an accessible venue with all-gender, single user washrooms.
» Detailed accessibility information found here

Image: Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience installation view, documentation: Yuula Benivolski

About Onsite Gallery
www.ocadu.ca/onsite

Onsite Gallery, the flagship professional gallery of OCAD University, offers powerful, thought-provoking exhibitions of art, design and new media to stimulate conversations on critical issues facing Toronto and the world.

Contact Information:
Emily Gove
Programs & Community Coordinator, Onsite Gallery
416-977-6000, Ext. 456
egove@ocadu.ca

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