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{"id":150702,"date":"2022-01-01T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/tree-protection-zone\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T12:35:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:35:52","slug":"tree-protection-zone","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/tree-protection-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Protection Zone<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Construction work associated with a transformative revitalization of the University of Toronto\u2019s St. George campus is the backdrop for Tree Protection Zone<\/em>, a year-long occupation of the green space south of historic Hart House. The ambitious public art project asserts Indigenous presence through the tactics of street art. Inspired by tree-protection hoardings installed in preparation for the forthcoming Indigenous Landscape Project, co-curators Mik Migwans and Maria Hupfield invited an impressive roster of contemporary Indigenous artists, aided by a team of student assistants, to engage with the politics of land and water protection unintentionally conjured by the hoardings.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The banner images by Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch (Onaman Collective), renowned for their visibility at Standing Rock, are direct engagements with this activist imaginary. Belcourt\u2019s Mother Earth Revolution<\/em> is a stirring declaration of global Indigenous solidarity. Meanwhile, Murdoch\u2019s iconic Thunderbird Woman<\/em> and Ojibway Said So<\/em> proclaim the sacredness of water and soil. Murdoch attributes his visionary iconography to more-than-human inspiration. Freely downloadable from the collective\u2019s website for use in land- and water-protection actions, these powerful banners embody an alternative economy of the image untethered by settler constructions of authorship, commodification, and visuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Onaman Collective (Christi Belcourt)<\/strong>
Mother Earth Revolution<\/em>, installation view, 2021.
Photo : Mikinaak Migwans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Onaman Collective (Isaac Murdoch)<\/strong>
Thunderbird Woman<\/em>, installation view, 2021.
Photo : Mikinaak Migwans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A more understated but conceptually charged intervention is Susan Blight\u2019s 6 kilometres<\/em> and 8,000 years long<\/em>, which pays tribute to the now submerged Taddle Creek that once flowed through Hart House Commons but has been diverted through culverts and storm sewers to make way for urban development. Blight\u2019s pulsing checkerboard of biodegradable stickers alternates between simplified maps retracing the creek\u2019s former course and a pledge of remembrance in Anishinaabemowin. Subterranean cavities are likewise intimated by the prominent orifice bared by one of the tentacled beings populating Shuvinai Ashoona\u2019s adjacent mural, Composition (Octopus Transformation). <\/em>Sited adjacent to a colonial cannon, Ashoona\u2019s work suggestively threatens to devour such trappings of empire. Like Blight, Carrie Hill engages with the specificities of site. A white pine\u200a\u2014\u200athe symbol of Haudenosaunee unity and one of the few indigenous tree species to be found at Hart House Commons\u200a\u2014\u200ais the focal point of Tewarontanonhna (We guard the tree)<\/em>, which resourcefully rescales traditional basket-weaving techniques using consumer building materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Que Rock<\/strong>
Every Child is Sacred<\/em>, installation view, 2021.
Photo : Mikinaak Migwans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
 Que Rock<\/strong>
Tree Protection Zone<\/em>, exhibition view, 2021.  
Photo : Mikinaak Migwans <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Que Rock\u2019s Every Child is Sacred<\/em> is a cathartic memorial to the victims of residential schools painted in a lyrical graffiti style that nods to Woodlands School forebears. International Indigenous wife-and-husband duo Taqralik Partridge and Nils Ailo Utsi also address the theme of missing children through haunting photo-text invocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the commanding figures of Onaman Collective maintain their original vibrancy, more ephemeral components of Tree Protection Zone that gesture towards guerrilla postering actions have already begun to weather, unfolding a rare and rewarding temporality of seasonal flux in a city dominated by monotonous glass.<\/p>\n
Adam Lauder, Carrie Hill, Christi Belcourt, Isaac Murdoch, Que Rock, Shuvinai Ashoona<\/div>
Adam Lauder, Carrie Hill, Christi Belcourt, Isaac Murdoch, Que Rock, Shuvinai Ashoona<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hart House Commons, <\/strong>Toronto
<\/br>September 8, 2021\u200a\u2014\u200aAugust 31, 2022<\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":155513,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[6879],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[832],"artistes":[5711,1725,1749,1755,1723],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-150702","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-104-collectives","auteurs-adam-lauder","artistes-carrie-hill-en","artistes-christi-belcourt-en","artistes-isaac-murdoch-en","artistes-que-rock-en","artistes-shuvinai-ashoona-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/150702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=150702"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=150702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}