Join artist Sandra Brewster and scholar, writer, and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson for a conversation with the AGO’s Wanda Nanibush about Black and Indigenous place-making through their collaborative audio-visual project, Viscosity. Viscosity was filmed at Leslie Spit in Toronto - a human made piece of land that juts into Chi’Nibish (Lake Ontario) and has now become naturalized. It is also a setting in Simpson’s novel Noopiming: The Cure For White Ladies. Viscosity appears in poem form in Noopiming. Viscosity is one of the tracks on Simpson's latest release Theory of Ice, dropping on March 12, from You've Changed Records.

Sandra Brewster is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. The daughter of Guyanese-born parents, she is especially attuned to the experiences of people of Caribbean heritage and their ongoing relationships with back home. Sandra holds a BFA from York University and a Masters of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. Recent solo exhibitions include Blur at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2019/20), Token | Contemporary Ongoing at A Space Gallery in Toronto, Or Gallery in Vancouver and the Art Gallery of Guelph. Brewster’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions including Identity in Flux, organized by VISART, Rajko Mamuzić Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia; travelling to National Gallery of Macedonia Skoplje in Northern Macedonia; Tivat Cultural Center Gallery in Montenegro; and Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art, organized by the Royal Ontario Museum, travelled to Musée des beaux arts in Montreal, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, NFL, Canada (publication forthcoming). Her works have been featured at LagosPhoto Festival 2018 in Nigeria, Aljira Contemporary Art Center in New Jersey, and Allegheny Art Galleries in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Brewster’s exhibition It’s all a blur… received the Gattuso Prize for outstanding featured exhibition of CONTACT Photography Festival 2017. She was the 2018 recipient of the Artist Prize from Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts. Upcoming exhibitions include: Blur, Harnett Gallery, University of Rochester, NY, USA (2022); and, I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada (2022).

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, musician and member of Alderville First Nation. She is the author of seven previous books, including newly released, A Short History of the Blockade, and the novel Noopiming: A Cure for White Ladies which was released in the US earlier this year by the University of Minnesota Press. Leanne has released four albums including f(l)ight and Noopiming Sessions, and her new work Theory of Ice. Her latest book, co-authored with Robyn Maynard and entitled Rehearsals for Living is forthcoming in 2022.

Wanda Nanibush is Curator, Indigenous Art at the AGO. Selected AGO exhibitions include Karoo Ashevak (2019), Rebecca Belmore Facing the Monumental (2018), JS McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art (2018), Rita Letendre: Fire & Light (2017), Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971-1989 (2016).