Pedestrian Values
Cassie Paine, Untitled. Photo courtesy of Justin Elliott.
Cassie Paine
Main Space
March 3–May 9, 2026
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund.
PARALLEL PROGRAMS
February 25, 6pm: Plaster Coin Workshop at Union Gallery (register here)
February 26, 4:30pm: Visiting Artist Lecture at Miller Hall, rm 201 (open to all, no RSVP required)
February 28, 5pm: Opening Reception at Union Gallery
Pedestrian Values reflects on economic shifts, labour patterns, and development in post-industrial urban cities. Using metal fabrication casting and interventionist tactics to alter coded materials and infrastructure found in public space, these installations reveal underlying power structures in urban environments, critiquing capitalist value systems focused on profit and development, exposing how these ideals are built into our everyday environment.
The recurring banknote pattern from the board game Monopoly serves as an explicit critique of capital’s control over spatial relations. It carries through the exhibition, adorning a traffic barrel, cast coins scattered across the floor of the gallery, and a construction privacy mesh.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Pedestrian Values explores how capitalism, colonialism, and value systems are embedded and reinforced through our everyday environment. Through this installation-based body of work, I challenge how capitalist value systems are reinforced and taught to children. Looking to my experience growing up in the rust-belt border city of Windsor, Ontario as a catalyst, I reflect on the impacts of urbanization in other post-industrial cities more broadly.
My research methods involve navigating the urban environment, studying, and observing changes to city infrastructure, and reflecting on how these changes affect the day-to-day interactions of myself and fellow pedestrians. Through my work, I examine, deconstruct, and modify tools of the urban environment. Using metal fabrication, casting and interventionist tactics to alter coded materials and infrastructure found in public space, my installations reveal underlying power structures in urban environments, critiquing capitalist value systems focused strictly on profit and development, and how these ideals are built into urban infrastructure.
The recurring banknote pattern from the board game, Monopoly, serves as an explicit critique of capital’s control over spatial relations. It carries through the exhibition, adorning a traffic barrel, cast coins scattered across the floor of the gallery, and a construction privacy mesh.
Cassie Paine is a sculpture/installation artist and printmaker whose work reflects on the functional and authoritative role of tools and infrastructure within our society. Based in Windsor, Ontario and Montreal, QC, her work reflects on the economic precarity of post-industrial cities; investigating urban planning strategies, systems in place to control automotive and pedestrian traffic, and distinctions between public and private places.
Paine recently completed her MFA at Concordia University (2024) and holds a BFA with distinction from OCAD University (2018). She has presented her work in solo and group exhibitions across Ontario and Quebec. In addition to making, Paine is a passionate educator who has worked as an instructor at Concordia University, NSCAD University, and Atelier La Coulée.
Stay tuned to find out more about this Visiting Artist exhibition.