In the fall of 2011, Regina-based artist Heather Cline created an immersive experience as an artist-in-residence in downtown Oshawa, designed to draw out memories and stories from residents, which in turn, would be used as the basis for the exhibition The Office of Identity Collection (1 September – 28 October).
Using the Thomas Bouckley Collection as a starting point, Cline layered her
paintings with the various histories and stories she had collected, showcasing the community’s reminiscences.
The process in Cline’s artwork reminds us how interwoven our past, present and future is, and shows the continuity of time in a community’s collective memory. The photographs that were used as source material for The Office of Identity Collection make up this exhibition. They offer the viewers a look to the earliest layers of the Oshawa’s history.