Tag Archives: Japan

Two Fish, Out of Water: Photographs from the Japanese Landscape

: Paul Kohl, Unknown

August 5 – October 5, 2009

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

After three years of exploration in the East, photographer Paul Kohl invites the viewer to discover an estranged view of Japanese landscape.

Kohl, also a professor in art, design and media at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, explores the state that the French call depaysement, the sense the traveler experiences where nothing is as you have known it; where the birdsong, the raked gravel, the telephone’s ring are joltingly exotic. Kohl’s unusual technique employs scanned black and white negatives using Photoshop as a darkroom. He then prints on Japanese paper with an Epson 7600 using pigment inks.

Works from the exhibit are from his recent book, Two Fish, Out of Water, which will be available for sale at the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery and the University of Victoria Bookstore.

The Art of the Ainu

July 14 – August 16, 2001

Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery

An exhibition featuring art and craft works of the Ainu people of Japan and will include a selection of musical instruments, textiles and jewellery. The Ainu culture is believed to be one of the oldest and perhaps the original culture group living on the islands before people began migrating there from China and Korea. Over the past century the Ainu have struggled vehemently to resist assimilation into Japanese society and to maintain their own culture and traditions.

Twelve Ainu artists have recently come to Canada to participate in this year’s Tribal Journey project with the Kwaguilth and Esquimalt Nations. Together they are carving two 50-foot traditional canoes. The canoe carving represents the restoration of Aniu culture as well as a keeping with the tradition and the strengthening of an identity.

Japanese Pottery and Tradition

April 2 – April 30, 1995

Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery

Curated by Hasebe Mitsuhiko, chief curator of the Crafts Gallery, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Sixty-six works by contemporary Japanese potters, artists of first rank in their field whom the government recognizes as masters of traditional craft techniques. One highlight of the exhibit is three works by the late Shoji Hamada, an internationally renowned potter and pioneer of Japans modern ceramics scene.