Proof of Life
Presented in conjunction with the Jackman Humanities Institute’s 2025-26 research theme—Dystopia and Trust.
Curated by Chloe Gordon-Chow
In a world pushed to its limit, it would appear we are teetering on the edge of apocalypse. Projecting into the future is a daunting task amidst dystopian realities. The continuity of this world necessitates the systemic and strategic destruction of other possible worlds. By continuing to aspire to an inherently violent and colonial world order, what futures are we denying ourselves? Perhaps it would make more sense to imagine apocalypse guaranteed: the end of this world as we know it.
Inhabiting dystopia, Proof of Life explores material debris from the end of the world, considering the aftermath of our present-day ruin. Using archival matter and found or foraged objects, the artworks in the exhibition bear traces and remnants of the present, speaking to a not-so-distant future. Featuring sculpture, installation, photography, and participatory art, the exhibition captures multiple dimensions of and attitudes towards wreckage. It asks, what does it mean to imagine an “after”? In answer, four artists speculate, play, and explore alternate possibilities for worlding amidst decay. Exhibiting works by Ernesto Cabral de Luna, boring earth, Shannon Garden-Smith, and Jenine Marsh, Proof of Life contends with “the end” as both an inevitability and a site of reconfiguration and becoming.
About the Curator
Chloe Gordon-Chow (b.1999) is a Chinese-Canadian curator and researcher based in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is an MVS Curatorial Studies candidate at the University of Toronto and holds a BA in Art History and Sociology from McGill University. Supported by an SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, her current research mobilizes curatorial practice, exhibition-making, and public programming as a form of speculative world-making and critical intervention. She has a forthcoming exhibition at the Art Museum, University of Toronto in Spring 2026.
From top left clockwise: 1. Ernesto Cabral de Luna, La Vida en Tres Quebradas / Trocitos de Memoria, 2025. Wooden Plinth, light table, emulsion lifts onto various pieces of broken coloured glass, shattered windshield. Photo courtesy of the artist. 2. Jenine Marsh, detail from Within or beyond my means (3), 2021. Flowers, synthetic rubber, wire, train-pressed coins, acrylic varnish, steel. Photo courtesy of the artist. 3. Shannon Garden-Smith, In a hare’s form III, 2021. Pigmented gelatin, plant clippings, lamp cord, approximately 18” x 18” x 18”. Photo: Lfdocumentation. 4. boring earth, Offerings, 2024 – ongoing. Acrylic resin, shell, pewter, bottle caps, pyrite, amethyst, image transfer, paper shavings, micro plastics, bells, fob key, bird's nest, marbles, pistachio shells, acorn, candle wax, copper coin, wood, silver wire, white sugar, glass beads, steel nut, fish bone, cat fur, cottonwood pod, acrylic, fossils, fire, orchid stem, orach and Ontario pollinator seed, sea grass, dehydrated iris, jasmine, rose, and tulip, neodymium magnets. Photo courtesy of the artist. 5. Jenine Marsh, Charm for the Remainder (4), 2022. Flowers, wire, coin, synthetic rubber, acrylic UV varnish, nails. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Proof of Life is a co-production of the Art Museum and the Jackman Humanities Institute that is on display from September 10, 2025 to June 19, 2026.
The exhibition is open to the public after September 10, 2025 during regular business hours - Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm. Tip: Call ahead (416-978-7415) if you are planning to come see the exhibition to make sure that all works are accessible. Since the JHI is a working space, some of the rooms may be in use.
Jackman Humanities Institute
Tenth Floor, Jackman Humanities Building
170 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5R 2M8
We are grateful for the contributions of the Art Museum, both financial and in-kind, through the contribution of expertise, planning and implementation. The curator—Chloe Gordon-Chow—is a student in the MVS Curatorial Studies program at the John M. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and has produced this show under the faculty supervision of Professor Barbara Fischer.
The Art Museum team that made this exhibition possible, extending their normal frame of work, includes:
- Noa Bronstein, Assistant Director
- Marianne Rellin, Communications Coordinator
- Micah Donovan, Exhibitions and Projects Coordinator
- Dan Hunt, Assistant Coordinator, Exhibitions and Projects
This exhibition would not be possible without all of their collective work.
Operating and project support: the Art Museum, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, and the Jackman Humanities Institute.