Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks

Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks: Kent Monkman

Join us for the second in the series of Lassonde Art Trail Artist Talks, organized in partnership with the ROM. 

Following the big reveal of his first ever public artwork on the Lassonde Art Trail, Kent Monkman will describe how The Colony came to life. His talk will delve into the inspiration behind this extraordinary sculpture: how it was conceptualized, composed, fabricated, and integrated into the landscape at the newly remediated mouth of the Don River in Toronto’s groundbreaking Biidaasige Park. 

The Colony references the essential role that Castor canadiensis has played in the natural, Indigenous, and colonial histories of Turtle Island. 

Monkman’s larger-than-life beavers—a nod to the mistahi-amiskwak, the giant beavers of traditional Cree stories and the Castoroides of pleistocene era—will feast, sing, dance, and celebrate, evoking Indigenous ceremonies as well as the opulent baroque sculptures of the gardens at Versailles. Their fanciful lodge also references Italian artist Veremondo Rossi’s 1763 engraving La Caccia Dei Castori. 

Once numbering in the hundreds of millions, beavers were crucial shapers of ecosystems on this continent. Like their Indigenous human relatives prior to the genocide that decimated their populations, beavers were eventually reduced to only 100,000 by colonial commercial and political competition. Today they thrive across Turtle Island. 

Monkman’s The Colony is one of two permanent new destination sculptures that will anchor the Lassonde Art Trail. The second, Artemisa, by renowned artist Joana Vasconcelos, is due to open in 2027. Commissioned by LAT, once complete, these two sculptures will be gifted to the City of Toronto Public Art and Monuments Collection.

Program Partner: Lassonde Art Trail

For more information on The Colony and the Lassonde Art Trail.