Agamiing – Niwaabaandaan miinawaa Nimiwkendaan // At the Lake—I see and remember begins with the Anishinaabemowin word agamiing, which signifies “to be at the lake, at the shore, or at the water.” Miner explores the lake as an important historic and contemporary location where different peoples/ecologies/worlds meet.
A series of seven platforms constructed from old growth lumber and copper are installed in seven sites across the exhibition area, buried slightly into the ground so that the surface of the platform is at ground/water level. Materially, the platforms’ copper detailing is symbolically rich: it harkens back to both early capitalist mineral extraction in the Great Lakes region, and to the sacred use of copper within many Indigenous communities.
Rematriating old-growth wood (and copper) back to the land, Miner’s work also explores the non-linear temporal concept of aaniikoobijinag (ancestors/descendants)—this work serves to bring the past into the present/future, or the present into the past/future, or the future into past/present. In addition to mediating between earth, water, and skyworlds, Miner’s platforms also serve to create a space to look at and remember the ecological destruction wrought by industry. Animated throughout the exhibition, Miner’s platforms serve as micro-ecologies within the larger industrial environment. However, these micro-ecologies are always interconnected with all other ecologies and, in turn, never fully autonomous. The platforms will play host to events throughout the festival.
