is an artist and curatorial practitioner working in Toronto. Her practice explores the cyclical nature of life and grief, family archives, relationship systems, and the interplay of absence and presence. The themes in her work emerge from discussions, play, rituals, and lived experiences.
Exhibitions
What the Creek Told Us
Ghost Body
handheld handmade handoff
In the Absence of Presence
Bodies of Work
For Your Records
Garlic Mustard, Dame’s Rocket
Hanlan’s Bones
Everything is dying slower than me
In the Absence of Presence
CV
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Arts Etobicoke
Sept 11 – Oct 18, 2024
In her second solo exhibition What the Creek Told Us, Lesia Miga considers the Mimico Creek as a place of continuity, resilience, and reflection. In late summer of 2023, a 6-alarm fire at a petroleum-based chemical factory in North Etobicoke turned into a large environmental disaster that heavily polluted the Mimico Creek. Fire retardant, and petroleum based chemicals from the factory entered the water system, which deposited into the creek. Heavy rainfall shortly followed, which carried the contamination downstream, to where the creek met Lake Ontario, requiring emergency clean-up crews and city officials to work for months to contain and remedy.
Over the past year, Lesia has used a variety of analog photography methods to document the creek, creating a record of the water, and the nature and wildlife that call it home. Her project began as an exploration of the impact that the fire had on the Mimico Creek, but then quickly turned into a conversation that unfolded through silent observation and reflection. What the Creek Told Us considers the relationship that urban natural environments have with the city that grows and moves around them, and the importance of sitting still in a world that is constantly flowing.
In spending time with the creek, Lesia reflects on the journey of water, the memories that it holds, the path it creates from its constant flow, and its resistance from being eternally contained.