Proof of Life
Jackman Humanities Institute
The University of Toronto, 2025
September 10, 2025–June 19, 2026

Curated by Chloe Gordon-Chow

With works by: boring earth, Ernesto Cabral de Luna, Shannon Garden-Smith, and Jenine Marsh

In a world pushed to its limit, it would appear we are teetering on the edge of apocalypse. Projecting into the future is a daunting task amidst dystopian realities. The continuity of this world necessitates the systemic and strategic destruction of other possible worlds. By continuing to aspire to an inherently violent and colonial world order, what futures are we denying ourselves? Perhaps it would make more sense to imagine apocalypse guaranteed: the end of this world as we know it.

Inhabiting dystopia, Proof of Life explores material debris from the end of the world, considering the aftermath of our present-day ruin. Using archival matter and found or foraged objects, the artworks in the exhibition bear traces and remnants of the present, speaking to a not-so-distant future. Featuring sculpture, installation, photography, and participatory art, the exhibition captures multiple dimensions of and attitudes towards wreckage. It asks, what does it mean to imagine an “after”? In answer, four artists speculate, play, and explore alternate possibilities for worlding amidst decay. Exhibiting works by Ernesto Cabral de Luna, boring earth, Shannon Garden-Smith, and Jenine Marsh, Proof of Life contends with “the end” as both an inevitability and a site of reconfiguration and becoming.

This exhibition is presented by the Art Museum in conjunction with the Jackman Humanities Institute’s 2025–26 annual theme, “Dystopia and Trust.”

Curatorial Essay