{"id":55503,"date":"2025-03-20T12:10:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=55503"},"modified":"2025-03-20T12:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:15:18","slug":"new-mineral-collective-at-mercer-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=55503","title":{"rendered":"New Mineral Collective at Mercer Union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Mineral Collective: The Pleasure Report<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mineral Collective (NMC) is a collaborative art initiative by Tanya Busse and Emilija \u0160karnulyt\u0117, based in Ontario. This exhibition celebrates the artists\u2019 tenth year of collective practice. Held at Mercer Union, this installation is a mixed media work that includes soothing narration, pink light and surrounding sounds blended with field recordings, printed textile and sculptural elements. We enter a reflective state in which we ask the question, how much has the mining industry of Canada continuously ground down these sacred lands, and for how long do we have to wait until there is no land to excavate, let alone to preserve? NMC challenges destructive mining practices through poetic activism, pushing visitors to see those behaviours through a fresh perspective on the scars of extraction and loss.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New Mineral Collective, The Pleasure Report<\/em>, 2025. Installation view: Mercer Union. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Vuk Dragojevic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NMC demonstrates a method called \u201ccounter prospecting,\u201d an innovative act of claiming mineral rights to prevent mining. They call this new form \u201cspeculative fiction,\u201d inspired from the term \u201cgeopoetics\u201d by Scottish poet Kenneth White. Placing molds of unusual shapes of dried sand and hanging textiles of printed marble-like terrains, the work addresses past experiences of excavation disasters and encourages us to question the impact of mining. With the help of a guiding narrative voice and the combination of meditative sound filling the space (collaborated with artist Tuomas A. Laitinen), we are tuned in with these scars or \u201cgeotraumas\u201d in a gentle, yet powerful way. This work is a form of activism, focusing on prevention by saving the land from excavation.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New Mineral Collective, The Pleasure Report<\/em>, 2025. Installation view: Mercer Union. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Vuk Dragojevic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition also includes the collective\u2019s recent publication, The Pleasure Report <\/em>which summarizes NMC\u2019s work over the past decade. It demonstrates the artists\u2019 practices, skills and dedication through photographic images of landscapes, both physical and metaphorical, as resistance, but also the pleasure and memory of these spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New Mineral Collective, The Pleasure Report<\/em>, 2025. Installation view: Mercer Union. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Vuk Dragojevic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polyna Alexseev<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: New Mineral Collective, The Pleasure Report<\/em>, January 25 \u2013 March 22, 2025, Mercer Union, 1286 Bloor Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tuesday- Saturday, 11am – 6 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Polyna Alexseev<\/strong><\/p>\n

NMC challenges destructive mining practices through poetic activism<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-polyna-alexseev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55503"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55506,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55503\/revisions\/55506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}