About this Event
Presented in conjunction with Faisal Anwar’s CommonSky series featured in Lines, Pattern, Action, the Blackwood hosts an interdisciplinary dialogue between the artist and Joe Siegrist, the President and CEO of Purple Martin Conservation Association. Their conversation brings together artistic intervention, ornithological research, and data as a creative medium to examine how collaborative approaches can deepen our understanding of the natural world.
CommonSky is featured in the Blackwood’s e|gallery (September 14 – December 5) including Breathe—a large scale projection on the Canada Malting Silos in partnership with OCAD U’s Global Centre for Climate Action and the Delegation of the European Union to Canada (September 25). These artworks trace the remarkable 5,000-mile migration of the Purple Martin from the Amazon Basin of Brazil to eastern North America. Using generative visuals, animation, and sound, CommonSky reflects on shifting climates, disrupted ecosystems, and fragmented temporalities to offer a meditation on environmental vulnerability, inviting audiences to confront human impact and ecological disconnection.
Faisal Anwar is a Pakistani-Canadian hybrid artist, curator, and immersive art producer working at the intersection of art, science, technology, and ecological storytelling. His multidisciplinary practice blends digital systems, complex data, and interactive installations to explore space, time, memory, and belonging. Inspired by ancestral knowledge and environmental research, Anwar creates participatory ecosystems reflecting on the fragile balance between humans and the natural world.
He served as Chief Curator for the Karachi Biennale 2022 and founded CultureLab.art to explore climate change, sustainability, and social innovation. His international projects include Breathe at Art on The Mart, Chicago (2025), A Place I Call Home at Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2025), and CharBagh at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2016).
Anwar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the National College of Arts, Lahore, and completed the Interactive Arts Program at the Canadian Film Centre. His accolades include the Labverde Amazon Residency, SSHRC Insight Development Grant, among others.
Joe Siegrist resides in Erie, Pennsylvania and is the President of the Purple Martin Conservation Association. He has previously conducted avian research for the University of Illinois and the Illinois Natural History Survey studying Acadian Flycatchers, Northern Bobwhite, and Neotropical Migrants in general. In addition to conservation research, he has also worked as an educator teaching high school science, a zookeeper, a naturalist, and a stay-at-home parent. Joe also serves as the Vice President of Alveus Animal Sanctuary and on the board of the North American Bluebird Society.
Accessibility
The Kaneff Centre is AODA-compliant, with wide doorways and powered doors. Accessible multi-user gendered washrooms are located on the ground and lower levels.
Lines, Pattern, Action
This public program is a presented alongside , an exhibition that brings together the contemporary practices of five Pakistani-Canadian artists engaging with pressing global questions around gender, war, migration, climate resilience, and ecology. This landmark exhibition marks the first time an all-Muslim artist showcase has been featured at the University of Toronto.
All five artists studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan (NCA). Their art practices build upon the rigorous art training of the NCA and the challenges of its colonial legacies to reimagine traditional South Asian practices for a universal viewer.
Visit our website for full program descriptions and contributor biographies.
The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and University of Toronto Mississauga.
Public programs are generously supported by the Shehla and Adil Giving for Arts Foundation (SAGA Foundation).
Event venue & nearby stays
Innovation Complex, 1833 Inner Circle Road, Mississauga, Canada
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