Opening Reception

May 10, 6 - 9 pm

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Artist Talk with Alison Koboyashi

June 14, 12 - 1 pm (mst)

Online
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"In 1942, 22 000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes along the coast of British Columbia. With very short notice to leave, they were only allowed to take one or two suitcases of belongings with them, leaving behind so much of their lives. During this time my grandparents and their families were removed from their homes and sent to the camp in New Denver. This body of work is inspired by my great grandmother’s story of having to leave behind her shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument, when she was forced to leave her home with my Grandmother and Great Grandfather. It made me wonder what others had lost and if those items still exist somewhere, orphaned. The concept of collective loss is abstract and complicated. How do you attempt to quantify and assign a value to a loss that goes beyond simply monetary? This work was an attempt to grapple with and examine the loss my grandparents and others experienced.

The sculptures in this exhibition, a collection of stolen heirlooms, represent the losses experienced by Japanese Canadians including possession, property and community. The diverse collection of sculptures depicts imagined lost items that hold cultural, monetary or sentimental value. The concept of an heirloom was utilized to draw a parallel between the passing of heirlooms through family generations and the passing of inherited trauma through generations of Japanese Canadians."

- Kellen Hatana

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Stolen Heirlooms is an exhibition by Japanese-Canadian artist Kellen Hatanaka that honours the legacy of his family’s experiences of incarceration during WWII. Recreating possessions lost to this injustice out of paper, wire, and washi tape, Hatanaka reconciles with the complicated and nuanced emotions communities displaced through loss experience including anger, unease and grief.

The term heirloom is often used to refer to sentimental objects passed down through families, but Hatanaka expands the notion of heirlooms to include the passing on of less desirable ideas, such as generational trauma and pain. By recreating possessions documented in archives of the Japanese-Canadian internment, Hatanaka is able to develop agency in approaching the legacy of his family, and how he chooses to pass-on the heirlooms given to him.

Stolen Heirlooms brings awareness to the neglected memory of Alberta’s role in incarceration, as it served as the location of many sugar beet farms families were forced to work on. Through the body of work, Stolen Heirlooms calls for unpacking the complexities of collective remembering, for those impacted and those who participate more passively, and asks the audience to reconsider our ideas of legacy, transference, and inheritance.

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Kellen Hatanaka is a Japanese Canadian visual artist known for his vibrant and dynamic works that often explore themes of identity, culture, and the human experience through a contemporary lens. He studied illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU), where he developed a distinctive style characterized by bold colors, geometric forms, and a playful yet thoughtful approach to subject matter. Hatanaka's body of work spans various mediums, including painting, sculpture and public art.

Hatanaka's art is an exploration of personal and collective identity, often addressing issues related to cultural hybridity and the immigrant experience. The work reflects a deep interest in how identity is constructed and perceived in a globalized, connected world. Throughout his career, he has created work that seeks to share Japanese Canadian narratives and weaves the history of the community with his contemporary experience.