What does it mean to be Canadian in the 21st century? A new art installation at the Aga Khan Museum challenges audiences to express their own idea of what it means to be Canadian from the rusting — literally — remains of stories from the past.

Rust Garden is a contemporary art installation by Matt Donovan and Hallie Siegel. It consists of more than 700,000 decaying low-carbon steel letters in a 5-by-7-metre sandbox. The assortment of letters isn’t random. Rather, they are a jumble of every letter that appears in Canadian writer Hugh Maclennan’s classic 1945 novel Two Solitudes.

Haven’t read Two Solitudes? Not a problem. Anyone, young or old, can participate in Rust Garden. In fact, audiences are invited to pick up letters and re-arrange them into a word or phrase representing your idea of what it means to be Canadian. Share a picture of your creation online or discuss it with other Museum-goers while sitting on one of the three park benches surrounding the sandbox.