A commission for Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, artist Jordan Bennett titled this symbolic, site-specific artwork Blueberries with Nan. The composition utilizes colour, form, and visual elements from Mi’kmaq visual culture and reflects on beauty and growth after hardship through the inclusion of floating, abstracted blueberries in the upper portion of the piece. Bennett has fond memories of picking the berries with his grandmother, and every year after the blueberry-picking season was over, the fields would be burned in order to clear the land for new growth. This taught Bennett about the cycle of life, death, and renewal. For him, blueberries represent medicine, power, and hope, and bringing blueberries to share at feasts is a common familial and community practice. By including the berries in this installation at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Bennett shares this medicine with those affected by cancer.

In the artwork’s lower quadrant, the pink spouts and double curves represent breath, below which is a flame—the catalyst for change and renewal within the composition. Framing the design to the lower left and right are semi-circle motifs representing, in Bennett’s words, “time through season and the stages of a single day.” The droplets on the left represent tears and the water that connects all beings to Mother Earth. The stars to the right, meanwhile, are based on petroglyphs from Mi’kma’ki (Mi’kmaq territory) and symbolize for the artist a connection to the spirit world and his ancestors. 

A profoundly thoughtful artwork, the colours present throughout Blueberries with Nan were selected with intention by Bennett. He says, “It’s my hope that these colours will be an entry point for folks to spend time with the work, have a moment to breathe, and be filled with the idea and hope of new growth.”