Meeting Place

Meeting Place is a site specific sculpture that was created during an artist residency at Algoma University College in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. The work can be found in the Shingwauk Forest, behind the Shingwauk University which is adjacent to Algoma University.

The work incorporates boulders found in the clearing, and is approximately 80 to 90 feet in length in the shape of a spiral with a tail – the tail leading viewers from the pathway into the clearing and to the centre of the spiral, which holds a white rock with a natural indentation in it – perhaps a place of offering.

Maple saplings were integrated into the spiral and the boulders were moved so that the moss was left intact, making it look and feel like an old ruin site, thereby asking viewers to question how long this work had been in the forest and what its purpose may be/have been. 



Diana Whiteloon, who helped with the work, later told me that Sault Ste Marie was a traditional Ojibway meeting place and Chief Shingwauk had a dream that there would one day be a school for his people where they could come together to learn—a meeting place.

Special thanks to Diana Whiteloon

Shingwauk Forest, Algoma University, Sault Ste Marie, ON, 2004