discard studies: forms of containment

In the emerging field of discard studies, geographers Max Liboiron and Josh Lepwasky argue that social, political, and economic systems maintain power through discarding certain people, places, or things. Here, waste is reframed not as an accidental
byproduct of industry but as inherent characteristics of industrial systems that rely on externalization or sacrifice zones. The continued siting of polluting infrastructure on Indigenous land and in low-income neighbourhoods is evidence of the uneven relations
between centres and peripheries. In the context of Toronto, the discipline of discard studies provides a lens through which to consider our enduring proximity to the nuclear industrial complex as a force that shapes human and more-than-human lives in banal, pervasive, and often imperceptible ways. 

discard studies: forms of containment emerges from conversations between Dana Prieto, Laura Grier, and Laura Pitkanen, tracing connections between seemingly disparate histories and contemporary conditions of communities impacted by Canada’s expanding nuclear industry. In their own distinct ways, these artists explore strategies of refusal against the forms of containment, civility, and bureaucracy through which
nuclearity persists without scrutiny. From uranium mining to the burial of radioactive waste, nuclear technologies have been central to the production and maintenance of the Canadian settler-state. This exhibition comes at a critical time, as energy demands
rise—driven by militarization, artificial intelligence, data centres, and climate policy—as nuclear is falsely recast as a clean and safe alternative to fossil fuels. Working across archival research, mixed-media installation, experimental sound and video, Prieto, Grier, and Pitkanen tend to the systems of discard that continue to sustain nuclear colonialism. 

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This exhibition is hosted at Gallery TPW, with generous support from the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.