September 18 – 29, 2013
The Unfinished business art show pretends to illustrate a diverse group of adolescent new immigrants not only dealing with the ordinary struggle to find their identity in this life stage but in addition, having to overcome the trauma that represents the immigration process that by and large affects people’s self-esteem and self-identity. Adolescence is a stage in a person’s development where identity becomes a central issue. This “crisis” stage is not a catastrophe as Erickson says but “a necessary turning point, a crucial moment, when development must move one way or another, marshaling resources of growth, recovery, and further differentiation” (Erickson, 1968, p.16). Toronto, in my eyes, is a land of immigrants formed by many ethnic and religious groups living in harmony and mutual respect and upholding religious freedom and freedom of conscience. Adolescents in Toronto hold the possibility to develop a richer identity, sharing a common Canadian identity, to make up today’s multicultural society.
