Sean McHale

UTOPIAN BINOCULARS

From afar it is easy to buy into the idea of a place, of its branding—where grass is greener and whatever else lies goes unnoticed until closer inspection. Much like the difference between living somewhere and being a tourist.

When viewing Canada at a distance, with prospect to move there, I managed a two-dimensional view at best. Wild and bountiful. Metropolises and peoples were ignored alike. Such simplicity is quickly dispelled by reality.

Shortly after I arrived here in late 2020, multiple new scandals over residential schools broke across the media, and so begun my consciousness of the country's past. Information on the nation state's formation is easily found online, of course; for me it took coming here to get the utopian binoculars off my chest. This photo series seeks material culture within settler society that may speak to viewpoints on colonization.