Cindy Mochizuki, “Autumn Strawberry,” 2021, multi-media installation; watercolour on paper and digital animation, 60 minutes (photo by Teresa Donck-Matlock)
Cindy Mochizuki at Kamloops Art Gallery
Vancouver artist Cindy Mochizuki’s new exhibition, Ancestral Dreams & Other Premonitions, is on view now through July 6 at the Kamloops Art Gallery.
As a Japanese-Canadian artist in Vancouver, B.C., Mochizuki finds rich material for her work by exploring memory, archives and unofficially documented immigrant experiences — including those of her paternal family’s history in Canadian internment camps during the Second World War as well as their experiences in post-war Japan.
One 60-minute animated work in the show, Autumn Strawberry, weaves together stories of Nisei elders (second generation Japanese Canadians) and their parents, who had dreams of a better life in Canada. Using hand-painted and digital animation, as well as interviews with Japanese Canadian elders who had been children when their parents and grandparents owned and worked on strawberry farms and other farms in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. “Stories of everyday life merge with a ghostly future world of trees and insects to convey an ominous sense of the complexities of these histories,” according to the gallery statement.
Emily Wilson, “Yellowhead Dreamscape,” 2023, gouache on paper (courtesy of Two Rivers Gallery)
Emily Wilson at Mackenzie Community Arts Centre
If you’ve ever gone on a road trip through Northern Canada — particularly around Northwestern British Columbia — you’ll likely be charmed by Prince George-based artist Emily Wilson's new show, Up Around the Bend. On view at the Mackenzie Community Arts Centre in B.C. until July 10, her latest collection of paintings share a quirky look at life along Highway 16: the hotels, mountains, animals, vehicles, even gas stations.
“Whether you’ve lived your whole life in northern BC or you’ve never set foot near here, I hope these new works will show you both the dark and light, the weirdness and beauty that make this region unique,” says Wilson, who lives and works on Lheidli T’enneh territory and holds a Certificate of Visual Arts from Vancouver Island School of Art.
Organized by Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, B.C., the show will continue on to Valemount and Area Museum and Valley Museum & Archives, exact dates to be announced.
“This work challenges the long tradition of representing the Canadian landscape as pristine, untouched wilderness. By including both the picturesque and the gritty realities of the region, Wilson captures the North with thoughtful observation and a sense of humour. It feels familiar to those who live here and is a candid introduction for those who don’t,” according to a statement from Two Rivers. ■
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