The Surrey Art Gallery presents two solo exhibitions this summer: Cindy Mochizuki: Autumn Strawberryand Henry Tsang: Hastings Parkfrom June 26 to August 28, 2021. Mochizuki and Tsang take camera and projection technologies and use them in unexpected ways to illuminate histories and everyday moments.
Cindy Mochizuki’s multimedia installation takes visitors back in time to Japanese Canadian farms in the twentieth century prior to WWII. Autumn Strawberryemerges from her artist residency at Surrey Art Gallery in 2019.
Mochizuki met with dozens of Nisei and Sansei (second and third generation) Japanese Canadians whose parents and grandparents had owned or worked on agricultural farms across the Fraser Valley. These sites included Strawberry Hill/Surrey, Mission, Haney, Langley, and Maple Ridge. Combining archival research with these collected stories of farm life, Autumn Strawberry weaves together a series of short vignettes imagined through a 60 minute hand-painted and digital animation projected onto the Gallery’s walls and screens. Visitors will life on these farms—women pickling, children polishing chicken eggs, and men picking berries. Mochizuki combines real with imagined characters and storylines in keeping with her art practice of historical re-creation.
“I’m grateful for the work that has already been done inside the Japanese Canadian community by those who have documented the Fraser Valley history of Japanese Canadians so carefully and for those who came to share their stories with me while in residence,” says Mochizuki. “Animation and its ability to blend both story and historical facts provides another lens to revisit familial histories and open other narratives inside this work.”
Henry Tsang, Hastings Park: Building A – Livestock Building North, View Looking West, 2021, pigment ink on metallic paper, 122 cm x 91 cm. Photo by artist.
Henry Tsang’sHastings Parkpicks up where Mochizuki leaves off. His multimedia installation presents photographs and projections of four buildings at Hastings Park in Vancouver, where, in 1942, roughly 8000 Japanese Canadians were marshalled and detained prior to being sent to internment and labour camps in the BC interior, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. Among the four buildings is the Livestock Building—a place associated nowadays with the Pacific National Exhibition’s popular pig races and petting zoo.
Tsang used a thermal imaging camera to create his images based in part on the compositions and staging of Leonard Frank’s documentary photographs of the Japanese Canadian internment in this temporary incarceration site. A thermal imaging camera is typically used in the construction industry to display differences in temperature by detecting light rays that are invisible to the human eye. Such photographs can reveal leaks or cracks in a building.
Tsang says, “In using this camera, I’m asking the buildings to remember when they housed 8000 people. This camera exposes not only the current condition of the buildings, but also the past and hidden histories inscribed within. It can see things we can’t.”
Join Cindy Mochizuki and Henry Tsang for a virtual conversation about their exhibits on Saturday, July 17 at 7:00pm via Facebook Live and YouTube.
Curated by Jordan Strom. The Gallery would like to acknowledge its community partners for these exhibitions: Powell Street Festival in Vancouver and Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby.
Today the Arts Club Theatre Company announced that it will reopen its venues for live, on-site theatrical productions this summer, starting in July. This special programming features two riveting solo shows, along with a powerful new audio play.
The Arts Club Re-Opens for Summer 2021
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran, who revealed the Art Club’s summer lineup, said, “Once the province announced the plans to lift restrictions, which included allowing limited indoor gatherings, we celebrated the news. Then we got busy doing what we do best—creating live theatre! And all this will be done in the most stable, safe way possible.”
Corcoran described the summer programming as “solo shows that are inspiring, potent testaments to the power of theatre. These plays will be helmed by Vancouver talents Marie Farsi, Bobby Garcia, and Sherry Yoon, respectively, each of whom will be making their Arts Club directorial debut.”
I, ClaudiaJuly 22–August 15, 2021 Newmont Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
The summer will kick off with I, Claudia at the Newmont Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre starting Thursday, July 22. Lili Beaudoin will star in Kristen Thomson’s acclaimed play of a young girl coming into her own. Performed with costume masks to signal character change, this show’s uncommon form will offer audiences a surprising, engaging experience. I, Claudia, which was published by Playwrights Canada Press, has been adapted into a film that was featured on the CBC and at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The second in-person show, Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story, will start at the Granville Island Stage on Thursday, August 5. Beau Dixon’s work is a celebration of the real-life miner Maurice Ruddick’s hopefulness, joyful spirit, and strength. His positivity and courage, which will be embodied by actor and singer Jeremiah Sparks, were a lifeline for himself and his colleagues during the 1958 mining disaster. This piece, and the music that is so integral to it, invites audiences to experience what it would take to live through an unimaginable event and shines with the resiliency of the human spirit.
For the third offering of the summer, the Arts Club is thrilled to release an audio version of the award-winning Mala, by Melinda Lopez. Making this work available in an intimate manner through digital means ensures that a wide audience can experience Carmen Aguirre’s commanding, funny performance as a woman who faces competing demands on her time and emotional resources. The audio play will be available from Wednesday, September 1.
All shows will be staged and produced in adherence to safety guidelines established by the BC government, including a current indoor audience capacity of 50 people.
Queer Arts Festival – Dispersed is a three-week eco-apocalyptic exploration of queer experience and artistic expression in the face of an ongoing pandemic and marginalization. Vancouver’s premiere artist-run, multidisciplinary roister of art and culture, Queer Arts Festival (“QAF”) is back for its 13th year this summer, in a hybrid format with both online and offline events and performances.
Queer Arts Festival – Dispersed
Where: Various venues & online
When: July 24 to August 13, 2021
Tickets: Limited quantity of early bird passes are available online for $69 (that’s a 50%+ discount) only until July 1st.
For the first time, QAF’s suite of visual art, performance, music, literary and workshop events will be presented in a dispersed format across the Lower Mainland—from the depths of the Sun Wah Centre and rooftop overlooking historic Chinatown, to Mountain View Cemetery, False Creek and QAF’s usual stomping grounds, the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre. Following the success of last year’s online festival, QAF will also have a streaming component.
Event highlights include: Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour and SD Holman’s visual art curation; a fabulously punk Japanese folk music and dance performance from Onibana Taiko and Alvin Erasga Tolentino; and a reimagining of Annea Lockwood’s 20th-century classic, Piano Burning, where fire becomes a vehicle for reclamation and decolonization (yes, they are burning a piano).
Event Lineup
ArtParty! Saturday July 24, 7:00pm to 10:00pm Festival Opening | SUM & Sun Wah 268 Keefer QAF’s opening: animating the Sun Wah Building from the basement, to the SUM gallery to the rooftop overlooking Chinatown and beyond, they’re launching the Dispersed QAF in champagne style with DJ O Show.
it’s not easy being green: Curated Visual Art Exhibition and Tour Saturday July 24 to Friday August 13 Visual Art | SUM & Sun Wah 268 Keefer Lower Ground Navigating the heart breaking and familiar landscape of apocalyptic post-colonial collapse, artists selected by Co-Curators Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour and SD Holman explore how Queer Art unfurls and blooms in continued and stubbornly vibrant survival.
The 38th annual, and 2nd annual virtual, YWCA Women of Distinction Awards took place tonight in Vancouver, and beyond. Dozens of incredible women were nominated across twelve categories, and over $75,000 (and counting) was raised through donations, a raffle, and a silent auction.
As Social Media Sponsor, I spent the evening live-Tweeting and live-Instagramming, and it was so inspiring to hear not only from the recipients but also two YWCA moms, Lindsey and Stella.
Here are your YWCA Women of Distinction Awards 2021 Recipients:
YWCA Women of Distinction Awards 2021 Recipients
Outstanding Organization or Workplace: Clio
Clio provides cloud-based legal technology and is embracing a new way of working called “Distributed by Design,” which allows Clio to operate with a fully remote workforce, supported by world-class physical offices in hubs within key urban centres. The company invests in best in-class tools, technology and culture to ensure team members are able to do their best work either from an office or remotely. Women hold 43% of management positions at Clio and the company actively develops reintegration plans for new parents going on leave. Clio supports a Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity Organization and deeply invests in employees’ physical, mental and social wellness. The company continuously challenges and develops its employees – by opening new roles, encouraging staff to pursue their ideas and providing mentorship.
Environmental Sustainability: Dr. Melina Scholefield
Melina is a Professional Engineer and Manager of Green Infrastructure Implementation with the City of Vancouver. She led the creation of Vancouver’s multi-award-winning Rain City Strategy, which has won 8 National and Provincial Awards. It is a transformative and visionary strategy for holistic and integrated approaches to water management over the next 30 years, introducing nature-based solutions that integrate with engineered approaches. Melina brought six different internal departments and more than 30 branches across the organization together, along with City staff, the public, industry, Indigenous peoples and technical experts, to establish a green rainwater infrastructure as a viable, cost-effective and strategic water management infrastructure. Melina and her team have designed and constructed 46 innovative green infrastructure assets, which capture and clean 32 million litres of polluted rainwater run-off per year.
Non-Profit: Armin Amrolia
Armin is Associate Vice President, Development Strategies at BC Housing, delivering thousands of non-profit homes to communities across BC every year. In her current role, she has successfully delivered more than 23,000 housing units for seniors, families, Indigenous communities, women fleeing violence, youth and those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Armin has been on the forefront of using modular construction, incorporating daycares into affordable housing projects, programing space for women’s shelters, healing space in Indigenous projects, safe injection space in supportive housing projects. She has also championed access to safe and hygienic menstrual products to provide dignity and equity to women experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. Armin has been at the forefront of every housing program that created new housing in the province since 1990.
Arts, Culture & Design: Nadine Westerbarkey
Nadine is Studio Head of 2D Animation at Atomic Cartoons, where she oversees more than 300 artists and crew. She promotes an artist-driven environment and utilizes her position to support female leadership and the full inclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ groups. Nadine has been instrumental in achieving the company’s mission to produce socially responsible and inclusive content that helps make the world a better place. She oversaw the production of the first-ever kids’ series in the USA to feature an Indigenous lead character, Molly of Denali, which recruited Indigenous crew to produce and voice the series. Nadine has also helped establish company partnerships, mentorships, sponsorships and scholarships with colleges, non-profits and community groups to create new opportunities for under-represented communities to gain experience to break into the industry.
Community Champion: Dr. Balbir Kaur Gurm
Balbir Kaur is the Founder and Chair of Network to Eliminate Violence in Relationships (NEVR), and a Professor Faculty of Health, Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Dr. Gurm started the grassroots, interdisciplinary group in 2011 and has grown to more than 200 members from more than 100 participating organizations, groups and individual members. Dr. Gurm’s book Making Sense of a Global Pandemic: Relationship Violence and Working Together Towards a Violence Free Society was published in 2020 and includes multiple perspectives and resources to provide a comprehensive overview of relationship violence. It serves as an online platform and living resource. As a Nursing Professor, Dr. Gurm is a role model for nursing students. She introduces the concepts of violence being a community issue and facilitates nursing students to participate in community activities within their classes.
To commemorate Indigenous History Month, the Vancouver International Film Festival (“VIFF”) and Museum of Vancouver (“MOV”) present the Who We Are film series in conjunction with MOV’s latest exhibition, That Which Sustains Us. Launching on VIFF Connect on National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), the series programmed by Indigenous curators Rylan Friday, Jasmine Wilson and Sharon Fortney includes five feature films showcasing a diversity of Indigenous experiences.
National Indigenous Peoples Day – Who We Are Film Series
The Who We Areseries pass and tickets are free to Indigenous Peoples.
VIFF+ Silver, Gold and Monthly Connect members get free access to Fire Song and can purchase a pass for $16.
Indigenous History month is a time to acknowledge those who came before us throughout turtle island, to validate lived experiences & the trauma left behind from the legacy of residential schools and the ripple effects of colonization that are prevalent in modern society. As Indigenous people, we must honour the past but most importantly walk forward and hold each other up as a community to a path of healing as these experiences shaped Who We Are.
These five films share universal hard truths that deviate from trauma based narratives, but explore the themes of: healing, resiliency, joy, laughter, pain and community all woven throughout as a singular curation.
Films
Fire Song (dir. Adam Garnet Jones, Canada) Adam Garnet Jones’ poetic drama about a gay Anishnabe teenager explores themes of love, loss, belonging, isolation and ultimately self-acceptance while stamping out colonial ideologies on sexuality.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (dir. Zacharias Kunuk, Canada) When Atanarjuat displaces the Chief’s son by winning the hand of the beautiful Atuat, his brother pays the ultimate price. This cautionary tale, based on an Inuit oral tradition, shows the consequences of putting personal desires ahead of community needs. Camera d’or for Best First Feature Film, Cannes 2001; Best Canadian Feature Film, TIFF 2001.
Boy(dir. Taika Waititi, New Zealand) When his father comes home unexpectedly, 11-year-old Boy must come to terms with the realization he is not the man he wishes him to be. A humorous and heart-warming coming-of-age story about Maori masculinities from Taika Waititi.
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (dir. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn, Canada/Norway) Discovering a pregnant Indigenous teen (Violet Nelson) sobbing on a rainy East Vancouver street, Aila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) works feverishly to get her access to proper support networks. Riveting and intimate; a revelatory odyssey. VIFF 2019 Best BC Film Winner.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls (dir. Jeff Barnaby, Canada) Blood Quantum director Jeff Barnaby’s audacious, genre-bending debut takes the nightmare of Residential Schools as a jumping off point for a supernatural revenge thriller, one of the most notable homegrown movies of the past decade.
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