The Question’s Project

A Collaboration with Ursuline College Students in Chatham, Ontario

September 16 2020 – January 10 2021

Accompanying Patrick Mahon’s Messagers’ Forum, a graphic poster installation entitled The Questions Project was presented by the students of Ursuline College Chatham in the Thames Art Gallery’s Community Gallery. In collaboration with artist Patrick Mahon, as well as their teacher Nicole McEachran, the students began work on this project in the winter of 2020. With the onset of COVID-19 in March of that year, the collaboration process was adapted amidst required school closures. Through video communication, online posts and other distanced and “disembodied” practices, the students developed works that spoke directly to questions they had regarding various unfolding social circumstances – including questions that arose amidst the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and those that surrounded the Black Lives Matter protests. Ultimately, the students’ project had a timely resonance that aligned with Patrick Mahon’s exhibition in pondering how we build community, now and in the future, under conditions of normalcy or otherwise. Inferentially, it asked us: can we be “messagers” that connect, build, hope, and dream together?