DIS – displaced, dispersed, dispossessed
UVic Legacy Art Galleries, Victoria, BC - Sep 16 – Dec 5
DIS is an exhibition of work by seven participant artists in the Past Wrongs Future Choices Artists and Scholars in Residence program. Hosted by the University of Victoria, in conjunction with the Centre for Global Studies and Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives, the PWFC program supports research into wartime Nikkei experiences across Allied countries. In the words of curator Sherri Shinobu Kajiwara: “Art has the unique ability to let viewers discover and unpack complex narratives at their own pace. The artists in DIS have interpreted their personal histories in diverse and fascinating ways.”
Among the participants is Japanese Australian artist Elysha Rei, whose detailed hand-cut paper works engage themes of memory, identity and belonging. For DIS, Rei has produced a series of high-contrast black-on-white paper pictures of World War II Australian internment gardens. What at first appears to be a gentle pastoral idyll in Kyoto Prefecture soon enough reveals elements of incarceration, be that barbed wire or a watchtower disguised as a pagoda. For her residency project, Nao Uda produced a 12-minute video entitled How to Translate Family History (2024).
“It was moving to understand that people were doing similar things that I do with my creative process,” says Uda of the PWFC residency. “Some of them use art and some of them use reading, some talking, and everyone has different methods. It was easy to feel connected because we had a similar interest and similar topics to talk about. I think it was a different experience from other residencies.”
Also included in the exhibition are works by Renay Egami, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Brava Kilo (Brian Kobayakawa), Michael Prior and Justin Seiji Waddell. DIS runs concurrently with a companion exhibition at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby (to Feb 27, 2027).
