[BCMA] Where Songs Surface exhibit opens at the Nikkei National Museum

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

Burnaby, BC – Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre presents a
new exhibition *Where Songs Surface* by *Masako Miyazaki* and *Yoshimi
Lee* from
March 18 – September 16, 2023.

Artists Masako Miyazaki and Yoshimi Lee work independently, yet share
parallel connections to Japan, Canada, and the medium of photography. With
different origins and inspiration for their practice, their paths intersect
with their mutual talent for storytelling, to expand the narrative beyond
what is visible, and to connect time, place, and memory.

Masako Miyazaki was born in Tokyo and is currently living and working in
Montreal. She migrated alone while carrying her Japanese identity, and
built her new life in Canada because she “appreciated the diversity and
generosity of Canadian culture”. Miyazaki uses a parable of a
monkey-monster from her country of birth to question our place within
nature. She chooses organic processes and materials such as handmade paper
and using sunlight. She combines photos with poetry to stimulate the
imagination.

Yoshimi Lee uses lived experience as raw material, with photography, video,
and writing of place to explore themes linked to her identity as an
uprooted woman. Lee contemplates her new home in Canada as a place of
unquestioned acceptance. Born in France, she traces her origins to Korea as
both her parents and family were Korean residents in Japan in their early
years; Lee immigrated to Canada 10 years ago. She grew up in a
multi-cultural environment of French, Japanese, and Korean, and had many
opportunities to visit her family in Japan while growing up and was
particularly close with her grandmother there.

This exhibit includes a heritage corner drawn from Nikkei National Museum's
collection.

We are grateful for the support of the BC Arts Council, the Province of BC,
Canada Council for the Arts, and the Council of Art and Letters of Quebec.
Masako Miyazaki
*A red monkey*
Inkjet print, 30”×22”, 2019

*Masako Miyazaki artist statement*
I capture moments in reality to create an extended imaginary world, taking
on the role of a storyteller thinking about our position as human beings
being an integral part of nature. I am attracted to photography because it
allows me to freeze the current moment which would otherwise flee. I take
photographs when I encounter the aura of places. My approach is to combine
photos with my poetry to expand the story beyong the visible images and
stimulate imagination.
Website masakomiyazaki.com
Yoshimi Lee
*Irokawa, La montagne*
Inkjet Print, 60”x 88”, 2015

*Yoshimi Lee artist statement*
Yoshimi Lee is not only a photographer but also an artist working with
video, installation and performance art after a professional education in
photography. Yoshimi’s parents are immigrants from Korea to Japan. Although
born and raised in France, she was given a Japanese education from her
parents and speaks fluent Japanese. She currently lives in Montreal, Canada
with her husband and children. Even though her life experience possesses
scarce context from Korea, She, as an Asian French artist, has repeatedly
considered the tradition of passing on the memory of the inherited culture
from parent to child.

Her work focuses on finding, discovering and reinventing her roots;

In her work Furusato, she is intuitively seeking for places that recalls
her parents and grand-parents childhood memories; since becoming herself a
mother of two, her search for creating a Furusato for her own family has
grown. She has visited few times a remote mountain village in Wakayama,
first as the family pioneer and felt strongly connected to this rural
Japanese site. Later she decided to present the place to her family. The
work Furusato is a photographic and sound experience, immersing the public
into a collective idea of the memory of reconnecting with one’s own roots
through nature.
Exhibit website
<https://centre.nikkeiplace.org/exhibits/where-songs-surface/>

Nichola Ogiwara 荻原にこら

Communications Coordinator
Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre

日系文化センター・博物館
6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby BC  V5E 4M7
*T* 604.777.7000 ext.109


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