Hiba Abdallah 'Everything I Wanted to Tell You'

What are the untold stories, secrets and conversations about places you think you know? EVERTHING I WANTED TO TELL YOU captures complex narratives of Scarborough’s diversity, nuance and resilience.

During the day, the Scarborough Civic Centre is used as a government building where constituents are counted and categorized. For one night on Nuit Blanche, Hiba Abdallah will use the building to explore deeply personal stories of Scarborough residents: their enthusiasms, anxieties and histories. The stories will be displayed as a large-scale text installation projected directly onto the 90-foot facade of the building.

The collection of messages was gathered through workshops with an intergenerational group of eleven Scarborough residents. The group visited lesser-known historical sites in Scarborough and several organizations that are part of the backbone of the community’s cultural scene. The full collection of stories is at the Doris McCarthy Gallery as part of It Can Only Be This Place.

This project was made in collaboration with members of the Scarborough community: Sofia Habib, Timothy Hunter, Noor Khan, Pamila Matharu, Joy Smith, Etta Snipe, Helen Su, Zahra Tootonsa, Trevor Twells, Islin Waite and Deshaun Whyte.