In the first of two events featuring artists Scott Rogers and Cole Swanson, this talk invites the artists to respond to the installation Mutualism (Fixed Assets) on view at the RMG until April 12, 2026. Building on Rogers’ interest in human-built infrastructures for the care and support of non-human beings, this work takes the form of a site-responsive bird feeding station. Assembled from broken automobile parts scavenged from roads and highways, Mutualism (Fixed Assets) connects with the industrial history of Oshawa, while proposing possibilities of ecological renewal out of the wreckage. Drawing on the resonance between their respective practices, Rogers and Swanson will explore a range of questions and reflections brought forward by this installation.
We are pleased to present this artist talk in partnership with the Art Gallery of Peterborough (AGP). Cole Swanson’s solo exhibition, Lithic Life, will be on view at the AGP until March 29, 2026. On March 7, the artists will travel to the Art Gallery of Peterborough to reflect on and respond to Swanson’s work in an artist-led exploration of his exhibition. Visit the AGP website for more info.
Scott Rogers was born in Mohkinstsis Calgary Treaty 7 and lives in Tkaronto, Canada. His practice negotiates the complex relationships between humans, other living beings, and land. Notable recent projects include Ormston House (Limerick, IR), ATLAS Arts (Skye, SCO), Pink Snow (Berlin, DE), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Koraï Project Space (Nicosia, CY), Kunstverein München (DE), Ivory Tars (Glasgow, SCO), Kamias Triennial (Manila, PH), and Franz Kaka (Toronto). In 2017 Rogers co-edited “Recognition”, the 14th issue of the journal FR DAVID, in collaboration with Will Holder and published by KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, DE). Scott’s audio installation Songs to the Sun was recently acquired for the Circulating Public Art Collection of Markham (CA). In 2025 he organised Affinities, an exhibition with two seven two gallery (Toronto), and presented Between Leaf & Light, a new site-specific sound installation for the Cancer Program at Barrie Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.
Cole Swanson is an artist and educator based in Toronto/Tkaronto. Through an interdisciplinary and materially focused practice, he explores emerging relationships between species living together in a time of environmental crisis. Exhibiting at institutions across Canada and abroad, Swanson often engages with conservationists, scientists, and community partners to integrate advocacy, education, and access into the creative process. Swanson is a PhD candidate in Environmental Studies at York University. For his research on Toronto’s double-crested cormorants, he was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship — the nation’s highest doctoral research prize. His work has been supported by private and public agencies including the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. He is a faculty member in the visual arts programs at Humber Polytechnic (Toronto).
Presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of Peterborough.
