Mississauga Culture presents Presence Exhibition

Presence relates to the state or fact of existing, occurring or being present in a place or thing.

Presence is a year-long program funded by the City of Mississauga. Throughout the program, residents were invited to participate in workshops, exhibitions, and performances, to explore storytelling and uncover the city’s cultural identities. The project aims to use the city’s cultural spaces to amplify young BIPOC creatives to share and collect cultural samples. What evolved is a living repository of contributed Mississauga stories.

Join us at Bradley Museum this fall to explore artwork from two local artists, Amrita Chopra and Whyishnave Suthagar. Visit the exhibition during public hours, Thursday to Sunday from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.

You must get tickets to enter the exhibit (for COVID safety) and the tickets can be found online through eventbrite: https://presence-mississauga-exhibition.eventbrite.ca.

Whyishnave Suthagar

Artisit Bio:

Whyishnave Suthagar is an installation artist and experiential designer from Mississauga, Ontario. She has received her BFA from McMaster’s School of the Arts, and was a part of the 14.0 Remix Project. To date she has shown her work at the McMaster Museum of Art, WIPP Toronto, MUCH Music HQ, the Gladstone Hotel, Manifesto 2018, the Drake Hotel, Stackt Market, the MOCA and The Distillery District. She has upcoming works being developed for the Gerrard Street BIA, the Critical Distance Gallery and Nuit Blanche 2022.

Artist Statement:

Whyishnave’s practice focuses on creating site specific installations using light and thread-based weavings. The aim of her work is to play with light and space to create immersive meditative experiences. Themes she explores in her work include ancient myths, dreams, memory and the subconscious mind.

Whyishnave specifically creates work reflecting on her experience as a second gen diaspora living in a Canadian-Tamil household, of parents who immigrated to Canada due to the Sri Lankan Civil War of 1983-2009. Through her artwork, Whyishnave visually assesses the juxtaposition of her upbringing in a home with Hindu-Tamil beliefs embedded in a land of Western values.

Amrita Chopra

Artist Bio:

Amrita Chopra is a Mississauga-based multimedia artist working primarily with 3D renderings, animations and audio. Her work explores identity, space, architecture and sound. She draws inspiration from everyday environments and moments, technology, spirituality and Punjabi history and musical traditions. Amrita’s work often takes shape as depictions of futuristic, dream-like, and contemplative scenes.

Artist Statement:

Using 3D renderings and layered sound, “Beyond” is meant to serve as a reminder of the omnipresent. The knowledge of the universe may show itself in physical stimuli we can experience with our senses, but it is always there, even when nothing else is – boundless.

Presence was curated and led by Amanda Foulds, Amrita Virdi, Eldiana Begovic and Hibah Mian. It was the first project selected as part of an annual BIPOC Community Curator program.