Minori/Fulfillment in Life

Description:

This exhibition between Centre A and Western Front presented two Asian artists in experimental collaboration.

Miyuki Shinkai’s glass apple orchard installation, which honoured Japanese farm workers' achievements and struggles in the Okanagan, was exhibited and became the stage for Filipino-Canadian choreographer and dancer Alvin Erasga Tolentino. 

Shinkai, a glass blower, created a suspended installation of six hundred blown-glass apples. The exhibition also included hanging display cases filled with old glass bottles and black-and-white photos of Japanese Canadians. 

Tolention created choreography and a forty-five-minute performance based on the translated journal entries of Japanese Canadians during internment. A recording of Shinkai reading from her own journal was part of the performance score. 

They used and interwove heritage, language, ethnicity, struggle, loss, hope, and celebration as the physical and emotional structures of their work.

An exhibition opening took place May 15 at Centre A. Performances occurred May 22 to 26.