Exhibition

Mottainai Artists' Walk and Talk

Samphors Say — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 02:43:04 +0000

Mottainai Artists' Walk and Talk Samphors Say Feb 8, 2024

March 9, 2024 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Event Category

Please join us on March 9th from 2-4 pm in the JCCC Gallery to hear from artists in our current community show, Mottainai(勿体無い): The Beauty of Reclaimed Materials. Mottainai (勿体無い) is a well-known Japanese word that carries a profound message of respect and appreciation for resources and the environment. Artists will give short talks on their featured work and their artmaking process and incorporate the ethos of Mottainai in their work.

Green tea and rice crackers will be served.

Schedule:

2-3 pm: talks by Keiko Shintani, yoco, Lois Schklar, Joy Takahashi, Neli Iordanova, Momiji Kimono Remake Program, Irene Sakata, and Barb Miiko Gravlin.

Short break

3-4 pm: talks by BReal art + design, Laura Shintani, Shuichi, Mui-Ling Teh, Emi Saito, Vera Kabo Tse, Nancy Hayako Peng, Ken Sugamori, and Maryam Pazooki.

See here for more information on the show.

Mottainai(勿体無い): The Beauty of Reclaimed Materials Opening Reception

Samphors Say — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 03:47:04 +0000

Mottainai(勿体無い): The Beauty of Reclaimed Materials Opening Reception Samphors Say Dec 7, 2023

January 13, 2024 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Event Category

Community Event

Exhibition

JCCC Gallery

Please join us in celebrating the opening of our upcoming community show, Mottainai(勿体無い): The Beauty of Reclaimed Materials Reception. The show features work from artists in the JCCC community around the theme of Mottainai, a well-known Japanese word that carries a profound message of respect and appreciation for resources and the environment.

Light refreshments served—more details to come.

Please note that artists in the JCCC community are still welcome to apply to exhibit their work in Mottainai until December 31st. Please see here for more details.

Unchanging and Changing and Changing

Samphors Say — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:35:54 +0000

Unchanging and Changing and Changing Samphors Say Oct 31, 2023

September 23, 2023 10:00am - November 25, 2023 5:00pm

Event Category

Exhibition

Heritage

Community Event

'Unchanging and changing and changing' is a solo exhibition and collaborative Nihon-buyō dance & Taiko drum performance by Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka that features wearable paper artworks that are imbued with the life of the performers alongside the histories of craft and place that inform them.

A reflection on well-being and selfhood, the works unite and contrast needs for protective armours and “inverse armours,” the latter activated by dance, music, and friends to encourage expression and joy. Hatanaka reflects on personal aftershocks from tsunamis, both real and metaphorical. Her work integrates her formative childhood experience in dance at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and is steeped with her recent time spent at a fourth generation paper mill in Japan. Her ethereal work collapse time and string together interconnected histories held within the threads, repairs and fibres of her practice: ancestral ties; the lineage of printmaking, inks, and natural dyes; personal narratives incorporating past printmaking blocks; and scraps of papers sewn into the next and the next work.

Videos share both a look at the Opening Night performance and the intergenerational experience of the papermakers in Japan and an intimate look at Hatanaka’s process while she was immersed in the very lands and community that create the specific paper she has used for over a decade. She intentionally chose a paper that is delicate yet strong, and heartfully shares its possibility into the future and its significance as an over 1000 year sustainable craft technology.

WASHI & ARTIST'S PROCESS

“The softness of the Japanese washi paper and its transparency represents the environment where the natural materials were picked, under a clear sky and near a magnificent river. The warmth and robustness of Japanese washi paper comes from the efforts of farmers and their love for this land where they have lived for several generations. It is thanks to this strong bond between people and nature that the Kashiki paper production company was able to produce Japanese washi paper.” — Kashiki Seishi, fourth generation paper mill in Japan where Hatanaka was an artist in residence.

The durability of washi and the tenacity of its long-standing techniques behave as a symbol for resilience that resonates with Hatanaka’s diasporic identity. A dynamic bond between material and body is present, resulting in personal reflections on the various ways that connections to ancestral crafts nurture a meaningful integration of art-making, identity-making, and community-building.

In her linocut print work, Hatanaka embeds impressions in the washi to convey topographical imageries that resemble chiseled snow, stone, water, earthquakes, or the gesture of a map. These organic forms use pattern-making and repetition to reference mental and emotional geographies as much as physical ones.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & CONTRIBUTORS

Curator: Chiedza Pasipanodya

Nihon Buyo Dance & Taiko Drum Performance: Danielle Yamashita, Katherine Yamashita, Jody Chan, Wy Joung Kou

Musical Performance: Benja, Peach Luffe

DJs: DJ Velma

Documentary Video & Photography: Johnny Nghiem

Collaborative Photo Work: Maya Fuhr, Holly Chang, Ashok Mathur

Advisory Support: Johnny Le

Fabrication: Yorgo Liapis, Dylan Moore

Washi Wearable Modelling: Benja, Peach Luffe, Sima Sepehri, Elissa Mielke, YGC, Leah Mersky, Felicia Daisy, Mist Walker

Production Assistance: Akash Inbakumar, Yahn Nemirovsky, Felicia Daisy, Gideon Näf, Danny Cardoso

Graphic Design: Christine Xia

Performance Video: Zachary Hertzman and Johnny Nghiem

Special thanks to Kashiki Seishi, Kayoko Ichinomiya, Patel Brown Gallery, Studio RAW and Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers, Victor Chin, Max McLarty, Deborah and Glenn Hatanaka, Julie Cawthorne, Miao Liu, Cybèle Young, Tatsuyuki Kitaoka, Sameer Cash, Crispin Day, James Arthurs, Su Yen Chong, Mayumi Lashbrook, Claire Shea, John Donald, JCCC Art Committee and Ayame Kai dancers: Susan, Jackie and Tami, Hisanao Kataoka, Akari Kataoka, Chi Family, and The Japanese Paper Place.

This exhibition was made possible through generous funding from the Canada Council of the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Unchanging and Changing and Changing Exhibit opening

Samphors Say — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 14:05:50 +0000

Unchanging and Changing and Changing Exhibit opening Samphors Say Aug 25, 2023

October 12, 2023 6:30pm - 11:59pm

Event Category

Exhibition

Community Event

EXHIBITION OPENING AND LIVE PERFORMANCES

THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2023

DOORS OPEN @6:30 PM, KOBAYASHI HALL

Free Admission | Cash Bar | Exhibition on View | Artist in Attendance

Please register for the opening night and live performances:

Solo exhibition curated by Chiedza Pasipanodya
Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada
September 23–November 25, 2023

Sneak Peek! as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto September 23, 2023, 7 pm–7 am

EVENT AGENDA

Time	Activities
6:30pm	Doors open
7:00pm	Live musical performance by Benja and Peach Luffe in washi wearables.
	Unchanging and changing and changing, a collaborative performance between Taiko drummers Jody Chan & Wy Joung Kou and Nihon Buyo dancers Danielle Yamashita & Katherine Yamashita in washi wearables.
9:00pm	After party
	DJ Velma and more to be announced ♪♪♪

Opening night begins with musicians Benja and Peach Luffe performing in custom washi wearables made by Hatanaka.

Following the music, a live performance of the same name, Unchanging and changing and changing, accompanies the exhibition. This performance brings together Taiko drumming, Nihon Buyo dance and Japanese washi paper techniques used for costuming. These three Japanese expressions are combined in the spirit of celebrating the potential of hybrid, personal and contemporary interpretations of historical practices. Developed collaboratively with Hatanaka, the performance features drummers Jody Chan & Wy Joung Kou and a mother and daughter dance duo Katherine Yamashita & Danielle Yamashita, the latter whom Hatanaka danced with as a child.

The performance traces a story that reaches back generations and toward a hopeful future despite the certainty of grief and gravity. Percussion and movement meld quietly and then persistently propel through a constellation of selfhood, tsunami, dis/order, change, koi, and Obon Odori.

WASHI & ARTIST'S PROCESS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & CONTRIBUTORS

Curator: Chiedza Pasipanodya

Nihon Buyo Dance & Taiko Drum Performance: Danielle Yamashita, Katherine Yamashita, Jody Chan, Wy Joung Kou

Musical Performance: Benja, Peach Luffe

DJs: DJ Velma & more to be announced ♪♪♪

Documentary Video & Photography: Johnny Nghiem

Collaborative Photo Work: Maya Fuhr, Holly Chang, Ashok Mathur

Advisory Support: Johnny Le

Fabrication: Yorgo Liapis, Dylan Moore

Washi Wearable Modelling: Benja, Peach Luffe, Sima Sepehri, Elissa Mielke, YGC, Leah Mersky, Felicia Daisy, Mist Walker

Production Assistance: Akash Inbakumar, Yahn Nemirovsky, Felicia Daisy, Gideon Näf, Danny Cardoso

Graphic Design: Christine Xia

Performance Video:

Zachary Hertzman and Johnny Nghiem

This exhibition was made possible through generous funding from the Canada Council of the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Opening Reception - 60 Years of Friendship Through Culture and Déjà Vu

SuYen — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 15:43:44 +0000

Opening Reception - 60 Years of Friendship Through Culture and Déjà Vu SuYen Apr 13, 2023

April 30, 2023 1:30pm - 3:30pm

Event Category

Reception: April 30 at 1:30pm

Exhibits: Déjà Vu: Split Perception as One | 60 Year of Friendship Through Culture

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC), the Centre invites you and your family to the opening reception for two exhibitions: Déjà Vu: Split Perception as One by Shin Sugino and 60 Years of Friendship Through Culture featuring an art installation by Elysha Rei.

To RSVP, click here to register.

https://bit.ly/JCCCReception

Artists Walk and Talk - Artsu Matsuri 2023

SuYen — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 15:22:26 +0000

Artists Walk and Talk - Artsu Matsuri 2023 SuYen Feb 27, 2023

March 26, 2023 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Event Category

An artist walk-and-talk will take place on March 26, 2023, where each artist will talk about their creations, what inspired them, and the process of how they brought their ideas to life. During the last Artsu Matsuri in 2020 the walk-and-talk was canceled due to Covid-19, however this year’s walk-and-talk offers insight into the new ideas and perspectives artists have gained during their time in isolation. This event will provide an opportunity for guests to meet some of the artists and their families as they informally dialogue with art enthusiasts in a casual setting.

Artsu Matsuri is a community based exhibition celebrating art in the JCCC community. This exhibition features the works of 25 artists: Katherine Adachi, David Bernhard, Kumiko Claros, Ruben Claros, Lois Fuse, Barbara Miiko Gravlin, Gerry Yumiko Hewson, Roslyn Levin, Gloria Kagawa, Tsutao Machida, Kai Morrison, Kaz Ogino, Harvey Okawara, Maryam Poozaki, Nancy Peng (Yamada), Michelle Ramos, Irene Sakata, Keiko Shintani, Ken Sugamori, Naomi Tsuji-Tamaki, Jerrold Tanaka, Kayoko Tanaka, Mui-Ling Teh, Rita Wong, and Hiroshi Yamamoto.

Artists Walk & Talk is happening on March 26 at 2pm.

This exhibition is available for viewing until April 21, 2023.

Broken Promises

SuYen — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 18:27:20 +0000

Broken Promises SuYen Aug 23, 2021

September 19 - November 22, 2021

Event Category

Heritage

Exhibition

Grounded in research from Landscapes of Injustice – a 7 year multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, community engaged project, this exhibit explores the dispossession of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s. It illuminates the loss of home and the struggle for justice of one racially marginalized community. The story unfolds by following seven narrators. Learn about life for Japanese Canadians in Canada before war, the administration of their lives during and after war ends, and how legacies of dispossession continue to this day.

Visiting Hours

Registration for on-site exhibit tour appointments of Maru: Immigration Stories and Broken Promises is now available for booking:

ON SITE VISIT SIGN UP

To learn more about JCCC's Vaccine Policy when visiting the exhibits, click here.

More Resources

Complementary website: Landscape of Injustice - Narrative Site

Download exhibit tour app: Apple Store or Google Play

Broken Promises Catalogue (PDF)

La brochure Promesses Brisées (PDF)

Learn more about Landscapes of Injustice Project: LOI Online Archive

This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.

https://jccc.on.ca/exhibition-tour-sign-ups

vibrate / still Opening Reception

Samphors Say — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:44:10 +0000

vibrate / still Opening Reception Samphors Say Jul 3, 2024

August 11, 2024 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Event Category

Please join us on August 11^th from 2 -4pm for our opening reception for vibrate / still, a two person exhibition featuring the work of two renowned Japanese Canadian artists, Nobuo Kubota and Akira Yoshikawa. The event will feature short remarks by the artists. Light refreshments will be served.

kubota / yoshikawa // vibrate / still

Samphors Say — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:39 +0000

kubota / yoshikawa // vibrate / still Samphors Say Jul 3, 2024

August 11, 2024 10:00am - September 11, 2024 5:00pm

Event Category

The next exhibit in the JCCC Gallery will be vibrate / still, a two-artist exhibition featuring the work of two renowned Japanese Canadian artists, Nobuo Kubota and Akira Yoshikawa. Nobuo Kubota’s “Intermedia” pieces range from kinetic sculpture to wall-based pieces to performance art. His artistic practice grows out of the geography and culture that forms between East and West, the conceptual and representational, and sound and silence. Akira Yoshikawa is inspired by the North American minimalist approach. He states that his artworks are meant to be used as “poetic tools” to create a place to rest one’s soul, and to reflect on the inner-self. His works seek to draw the viewer into the works and ultimately to a point of stillness – meditation.

Opening Reception

Body/Armour Photography Exhibit

Samphors Say — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 02:18:55 +0000

Body/Armour Photography Exhibit Samphors Say Mar 19, 2024

April 28, 2024 10:00am - July 31, 2024 5:00pm

Event Category

Community Event

Exhibition

Curated by Shin Sugino and Stephen Bulger and presented as part of CONTACT Photography Festival, our spring photography exhibit, Body/Armour, brings together the work of German photographer Claudia Fährenkemper with Canadian photographer Ruth Kaplan.

Fährenkemper’s photographs of Japanese samurai armour and electron microscope images of insect exoskeletons interrogate protective casings, both natural and man-made. Her work contrasts with Kaplan’s Bathers series, which meditates on bodies and rituality. Ruth Kaplan’s subjects appear more vulnerable when seen against the protective casings in Claudia Fährenkemper’s, while those casings remind the viewer of the extent to which humans will seek self-preservation.

Body/Armour will run from April 28th to July 31st in the JCCC Gallery. Please note that that Body/Armour contains mild artistic nudity in Ruth Kaplan’s Bathers series and may not be suitable for all audiences.

Please join us on April 28th from 1-4pm for our opening reception. We are pleased that Claudia Fährenkemper will join us for this reception all the way from Germany to present an artist talk along with curator Stephen Bulger at 2pm! Click below for more information.

Opening Reception