Colin Alexander

MLAGEJUO’Q

Ontario Winner
University of Toronto
Borden & City Dairy Company milk bottles, birch plywood, found lumber, bricks, clay, audio, speaker
24 x 80 x 28 in
8 minutes audio

The Mlagejuo’q ‘Milk bottle’ installation in the North Borden building of Tkaronto is my Mi’kmaw attempt to understand urban space in general, and its structural violence in particular, through a close relationship to the materiality of this site. Designed to be North America’s most scientifically and technologically advanced dairy facility, by the 1950’s it had descended into conducting malnutrition research experiments on Indigenous children. From clay to brick and milk to bottle, this site has always been one of extraction in the name of progress. A progress never manifested for Indigenous communities, while settlers enjoyed the benefits of sanitized glass milk bottles and growing brick cities.