What We Inherit
Artworks Exhibited
Natalie Hunter. Selections from Light Touch. 2017. Archival pigment prints on baryta paper from 120mm negatives. 24" x 36" each.
Natalie Hunter. Selections from Of Rust and Rays. 2024. Archival pigment prints on transparent film, hand shaped birch, hand cast and tinted resin, colour reflective film, magnets, UV varnish, light.
Natalie Hunter. In The Shadow of Rust 01. Two Archival pigment prints on transparent film draped over hand turned aluminum and birch armatures, hand cast gypsum, light.
Natalie Hunter. In The Shadow of Rust 02. Colour photograph on sheer polyester, steel lunch pail belonging to the artist's father. 36" x 88".
What We Inherit
An exhibition of work by Natalie Hunter and Heidi McKenzie
Workers Arts and Heritage Centre
Hamilton, Ontario
February 7, 2025 - April 12, 2025
What legacies of labour do we inherit? From pride, activism, and working-class values to injuries, diseases and pollution, the work of Natalie Hunter and Heidi McKenzie in What We Inherit reveals how the legacies of family members’ occupations shape us. Using media that evoke basic elements, the artists ask, how do years of labour performed by our family members occupy every breath, etch onto the skin, leave residues in the body?
Images of structures once populated by workers cast through film celebrate Hunter’s family legacy at Slater Steel and Stelco while mourning the effects of deindustrialization. In earthenware McKenzie explores the impact of work in Trinidad’s oil refinery on her father’s health. Using ceramic tile and video projection McKenzie explores bodily traces of her ancestors who worked their way to Canada from Belfast and India by way of the Caribbean.
Hunter and McKenzie also represent the labour legacy of their maternal lineage in farming, weaving, housework and reproduction using porcelain, ceramic, and photography. Time has moved on, yet what of this work does our heart and body remember?
Curatorial Essay by Marcie Bronson
Articles and Press
Mark McNeil. Remembering Hamilton's Industrial Heritage as Trump's Tariffs Pummel The City's Steel Sector. Hamilton Spectator. March 18th 2025. https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/flashbacks-hamilton/remembering-hamilton-s-industrial-heritage-as-trump-s-tariffs-pummel-the-city-s-steel-sector/article_13402672-be33-5dda-bcc4-61962bc25671.html
Samantha Beattie. Hamilton steelworkers are worth remembering. March 22, 2025. CBC News Hamilton. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/steelworker-event-1.7489823#:~:text=%22Steelworkers%20supported%20this%20city%2C%20they,they%20contributed%20to%20the%20economy.
Radio Interview with Sharang Sharma on CFMU Morning File. March 21st, 2025. https://soundcloud.com/workers-arts-and-heritage/what-we-inherit-natalie-hunter-and-heidi-mckenzie-on-cfmu-morningfile?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing