Transpacific Dreams at the Canadian Embassy’s Prince Takamado Gallery in Tokyo, Japan

Opening on January 27th at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Prince Takamado Gallery is my solo exhibition Transpacific Dreams which features the films Tides & Moons (2022) and Autumn Strawberry (2021) alongside 12 new giclee prints and under-sea sculptures originally created for 13’2” Between Us. I am pleased to be part of an in-conversation at 5pm at the Oscar Peterson Theatre with author Erika Kobayashi and Toyotao Municipal Gallery curator Yoko Nose. We will be discussing themes around how as women we weave and tie stories inside our respective practices. I wish to acknowledge Kaoru Masumi and her install team for their labour and work that went into this exhibition and to Maki Ishida for translating our event. The exhibition is on until May 2, 2023. Please remember to bring your photo ID with you for entry.

Here is the English Press Release:

The Embassy of Canada to Japan is pleased to present the exhibition Transpacific Dreams, by Cindy Mochizuki. Mochizuki is a Vancouver-based artist known for multimedia installations and artwork using audio, performance, and animation. She is a fourth-generation Japanese Canadian whose works often deal with early Japanese immigrants to Canada. Her works employ the revival of both written and oral histories, which she re-assembles into her artworks after meeting and listening to the people involved. The art and performance spaces she creates with such lyricism and skill portray how Japanese immigrants established new lives in Canada and how they emerged from the tragic displacement of history.

This exhibition presents Mochizuki’s latest two animated films, both of which are set in British Columbia before WWII. Tides & Moons: Herring Capital (2022) depicts the industries around Nanaimo, where many Japanese Canadians worked before the war. The animation traces the story of the community’s development and success, despite hardships placed by Canadian society when the war broke out. Autumn Strawberry (2021) vividly portrays the diligence, hard work, and longing for home of Japanese immigrants who crossed the ocean to realize their hopeful dreams and make new lives for themselves on berry farms in the Fraser Valley. The animation blends accounts of real historical people with episodes based on fictional characters.