Packed Fall Arts Season Featuring 2 Exhibitions

Learning to See: Shizuye Takashima in Retrospect Gendai Gallery In the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre 6 Garamond Court, Toronto, Ontario Currently open to November 16th 2008 Gallery hours: 12:00pm - 5:00pm, Tuesday to Sunday (closed Mondays) Free Admission

Learning to See opening reception - Photo by Takeshi Yano, 2008

October 16 - November 13, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday October 16, 5:00 - 9:00 pm
Co-presented with Gendai Gallery & Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival

Image: Wang Gongxin, Kara Oke, (video still), 2000, courtesy of the artist

Curated by Maiko Tanaka & Heather Keung
With works by Candice Breitz, Wong Gongxin, Christian Jankowski, Karen Tam, Iichiro Tanaka.

Empty Orchestra explores karaoke (the word from which the exhibition title is translated) and its relationship to contemporary art and cultural diasporas. Karaoke originated in the ‘70s in Japan, and quickly entered many other cultural contexts. The exhibition presents works by Canadian and international artists who embrace, challenge, and query notions of karaoke as a medium of individual expression and collective identity. Examining the phenomenon of karaoke as a commodified interface between technology and culture, the artists in the exhibition address its effects on social activity, diasporic communities, and popular culture in a global context. Empty Orchestra asks, among other questions, whether karaoke asserts a prescribed form of cultural expression, or, in its performative imperfections, allows possibilities for resistance.

Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday October 16, 5:00 - 9:00 pm, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery