FRANC
GALLERY
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Absence
in
Remembrance:
The
Japanese
Canadian
Internment
June
16
—
July
16,
2016
Opening
Reception:
Thursday,
June
16
6‐9
PM
(Left
to
Right,
Top
to
Bottom)
Lillian
Michiko
Blakey,
Wanted:
Model
Canadian,
2011,
mixed
media
on
canvas,
24
x
20
in.,
Collection
of
the
Artist.
Emma
Nishimura,
Carried
Along,
2008,
Etching
with
aquatint
and
thread,
14
x
14
x
1
in.,
Collection
of
the
Nikkei
National
Museum,
Burnaby.
Cindy
Mochizuki,
Panorama
Series
I,
2012,
Portrait
Pinhole,
Photo
Set
4:
Artist’s
father
as
a
young
boy
with
his
brother
in
Slocan,
B.C.,
photograph
and
LED
Light,
Collection
of
the
Artist.
Leslie
Hossack,
Large
Barn,
Site
of
Tashme
Internment
Camp,
Sunshine
Valley,
British
Columbia,
2013,
pigment
ink
on
gloss
baryta,
14
x
20.5
in.,
Collection
of
the
Artist.
Vancouver,
British
Columbia
(May
2016)
–
Franc
Gallery
is
pleased
to
present
Absence
in
Remembrance:
The
Japanese
Canadian
Internment,
a
group
exhibition
featuring
Canadian
artists
Lillian
Michiko
Blakey,
Leslie
Hossack,
Emma
Nishimura,
and
Cindy
Mochizuki.
The
exhibition
is
curated
by
Kristine
Olson,
an
MA
Candidate
in
Art
History:
Critical
&
Curatorial
Studies
at
the
University
of
British
Columbia.
It
will
run
from
June
16,
2016
–
July
16,
2016
with
an
opening
reception
on
Thursday,
June
16
from
6‐9
p.m.
FRANC
GALLERY
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Absence
in
Remembrance
centres
on
the
remembrance
and
commemoration
of
the
experience
and
legacy
of
the
Japanese
Canadian
Internment,
which
began
in
British
Columbia
and
unfolded
across
Canada
during
World
War
II.
At
a
generational
remove
from
the
internment
experience,
each
artist
has
come
to
know
and
“remember”
the
experience
indirectly
through
different
encounters
and
means,
including
oral
testimonies,
family
photographs,
novels,
and
archival
research.
Each
work
is
both
an
act
of
remembering
and
form
of
remembrance
that
includes
photography,
painting,
printmaking
and
photo‐based
light
and
video
installation.
The
range
in
medium
speaks
to
the
nuanced
and
disjunctive
ways
in
which
history
is
experienced,
transmitted
and
received;
and,
concomitantly,
how
it
is
remembered
and
recreated
for
transmission
to
future
generations.
Never
fully
formed
in
and
of
themselves,
history
and
memory
remain
pliable
concepts,
particularly
in
relation
to
trauma.
Central
to
each
work
in
this
exhibition
are
fragments,
voids,
and
absences.
The
Japanese
Canadian
Internment—
as
a
process
of
registration,
dispossession,
removal
and
incarceration
in
Canada,
and
even
deportation
to
Japan—is
a
history
predicated
on
the
absence,
silence
and
invisibility
of
Japanese
Canadians
imposed
under
the
authority
of
the
War
Measures
Act.
In
the
works,
pictorial
elements
provoke
investigation
of
the
absences
and
silences
that
continue
to
haunt
the
remembrance
of
the
internment
experience
in
the
present
and
the
implications
for
its
transmission
in
the
future.
In
its
new
location
on
Franklin
Street,
Franc
Gallery
is
situated
near
Powell
Street
where,
in
the
Downtown
Eastside,
a
prominent
Japanese
Canadian
community
lived
prior
to
its
forced
removal
in
1942.
Once
referred
to
as
“Little
Tokyo”
and
“Japan
Town,”
today
Powell
Street
discloses
little
about
its
past.
Exhibiting
Absence
in
Remembrance
near
this
historical
neighborhood
relocates
the
remembrance
of
the
Japanese
Canadian
Internment
closer
to
the
spatial
context
in
which
it
began
to
unfold
in
Vancouver
and
British
Columbia.
Paradoxically,
the
attempt
to
relocate
and
remember
this
history
and
its
legacy
in
Vancouver
illuminates
what
continues
to
be
forgotten,
hidden,
and
obscured.
Issues
of
racism,
forcible
displacement
and
citizenship
are
still
urgent
and
pertinent
today,
nearly
75
years
after
the
internment.
FRANC
GALLERY
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Related
Events
Artist
Talk:
Cindy
Mochizuki
Archives
of
After
Images
Saturday,
June
18th
1‐2
PM
This
talk
will
focus
on
Mochizuki’s
artistic
practice
that
explores
multi‐media,
photography
and
memory
work
in
public
and
private
archives.
Interested
in
methods
of
working
with
the
after
images
of
war
and
historical
memory,
Mochizuki
will
discuss
how
the
production
of
the
after
image
continues
to
live
on
and
shape
how
family
members
remember
experiences
even
after
the
traumatic
events
have
ceased.
Mochizuki
will
speak
to
her
work
Panorama
Series
I
that
explores
the
remembrance
of
the
Japanese
Canadian
internment
through
a
familial
lens.
Absence
in
Remembrance
will
run
through
until
Saturday
July
16,
2016.
Franc
Gallery
is
located
at
1654
Franklin
Street,
Vancouver,
British
Columbia
V5L
1P4.
Gallery
hours
are
Tuesday
‐
Wednesday,
Friday
‐
Saturday
12–
6
PM,
and
by
appointment.
The
gallery
is
closed
Sunday,
Monday
and
Thursday.
For
additional
information
please
contact
Kristine
Olson,
[email protected];
or
Franc
Gallery,
604‐428‐4248
or
[email protected].
The
exhibition
is
made
possible
with
support
from
the
Killy
Foundation
and
the
Audain
Endowment
for
Curatorial
Studies
through
the
Department
of
Art
History,
Visual
Art
and
Theory
in
collaboration
with
the
Morris
and
Helen
Belkin
Art
Gallery
at
the
University
of
British
Columbia.