ひろしま hiroshima

Friday, October 14, 2011 through Sunday, February 12, 2012

This exhibition features an installation of 48 photographs by Ishiuchi Miyako of clothing and accessories left behind by victims of the 1945 atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Unlike the black-and-white images of devastated landscapes often associated with the bombing, Ishiuchi’s colour photographs capture her own moments of encounter with everyday objects that are now preserved at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Testaments to a profound trauma, her images at once illuminate the beauty and complexity of individual lives, and the weight of collective history.

Born in 1947 in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, Ishiuchi began her artistic career in the late 1970s and is now one of that country’s leading contemporary photographers. This is the first exhibition of Ishiuchi’s ひろしま hiroshima series outside Japan. For a list of related programming, please visit www.moa.ubc.ca/events. Exhibition sponsored in part by Shiseido and the Japan Foundation. Media sponsor The Georgia Straight.

A note about the artist's name and the exhibition title: The artist is referred to as Ishiuchi Miyako, or Ishiuchi (not Miyako Ishiuchi or Miyako). ひろしま means Hiroshima, written in Japanese hiragana characters. Hiragana is one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana. These characters were extensively used by women in former times; for Ishiuchi, using this style for the title emphasizes that this series is made from the point of view and feelings of a woman. It is the artist’s wish that that the hiragana appears before the word ‘hiroshima’ as part of MOA’s exhibition title, and that the ‘h’ in Hiroshima not be capitalized.

Photo Credit:(detail) Ishiuchi Miyako ひろしま/hiroshima #9, Dress, 2007/2008, Type C Print, 108x74cm, T.Fujisawa

A Green Dress

September 27, 2011—April 8, 2012, The O’Brian Gallery, MOA

Do objects remember? Or are they wrapped in the memories we bring to them, like layers of stories folded around a picture, a voice, or a worn-out shoe? In this exhibit, created to complement  ひろしま hiroshima by Ishiuchi Miyako, opening in The Audain Gallery on October 13, visitors are invited to experience selected objects and media from MOA’s worldwide collection. Some are ancient, some are new. Some are inscribed with their histories, while others are uprooted – their origins, makers, and journeys erased or forgotten. Some, like the green dress of the title, speak to memories and relationships not contained by the Museum but still part of living communities. Please join us for this intimate, yet revealing, look at the collections, curated by Karen Duffek, Krisztina Laszlo, Carol Mayer, and Susan Rowley. 

Photo Credit:(detail) Dress from Erromango, Vanuatu, loaned by Carol Mayer, Marcela Huerta photo.