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<\/a>Kanbara says that what stands out the most about the exhibit is that the art is all very different, which is a testament to it being made by very different artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very individual and different, and I think during their lives… they developed their careers without really knowing one another, and so they didn\u2019t influence one another and their work was very different from each other,\u201d says Kanbara. \u201cSo, there isn\u2019t really a theme, other than the fact that they\u2019re very different and reflect the experience of Japanese-Canadians in this country. A lot of them grew up very influenced by the mainstream, and each of them have succeeded in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kanbara says that art is a way for Japanese artists to explore their own identity and heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all artists and they\u2019re all very inquisitive, so I\u2019m sure all of them investigated the side of their Japanese heritage. Someone like Takao Tanabe, who is from the Island\u2014around Parksville somewhere\u2014he went to Japan to explore his Japanese identity and he came back pretty certain he was not Japanese. He was a westerner. None of those people could really speak Japanese, for example. They were not fluent at all in Japanese… They could speak it to a certain extent but their connection with Japan is curious, because, like I said, each of them probably explored it to some extent but it didn\u2019t play a major part in the art they produced here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kanbara says that his main hopes for this exhibit is to give its audience inspiration to further explore Japanese art and to give a boost of pride to the Japanese-Canadians attending.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I hope they take away, if they don\u2019t know the artists before they come, I hope it inspires them or motivates them to look deeper into what their lives and practices have been, because they did a lifetime of work,\u201d he says. \u201cFor Japanese-Canadians in the community, I would hope it instills or renews a sense of pride in the work that Japanese-Canadian artists have produced. And also an appreciation that these artists, on behalf of the community, expressed feelings and experiences in their own ways.\u201d<\/p>\n