A new stainless-steel sculpture, Consonance, by Canadian artist Hooman Mehdizadehjafari, will be installed along the waterfront near the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. The work was selected to honour and imagine a way forward for Kingston’s untold cultural heritage stories, and is expected to be completed and installed in December 2026.

Consonance depicts a dynamic formation of diverse human figures rising and supporting one another toward a shared apex. Unlike sculptures that celebrate colonial power or military achievement, Mehdizadehjafari says the artwork will represent “the collective strength and unity that emerges when diverse voices come together,” providing a “living symbol of inclusion.”

The installation is the culmination of the research project “Toppling Monuments: Colonial Trauma, Justice, Heritage, and Restorative Healing,” led by a multidisciplinary team of political and legal theorists and health care researchers, with guidance from an advisory circle of Indigenous and racialized minority community leaders. Five proposals were shortlisted, and models were displayed in the Isabel atrium for public input in April and May.

“We learned that Kingston’s heritage narratives – think of Sir John A Macdonald or the United Empire Loyalists – have had a complicated effect on underrepresented groups,” says Christine Sypnowich, the project’s principal investigator and professor in the Department of Philosophy.

“The prospect of a new art installation that will honour the untold stories of Kingston’s heritage is so exciting,” says Carol Ann Budd, an Indigenous alumnus of Queen’s Engineering and a member of the project’s advisory circle. “The sculpture promises to be a key Kingston landmark for generations to come.”