GYOTAKU: A JAPANESE FISH PRINTING WORKSHOP
with artist Paula Nishikawara
$10 or pay what you can. Registration required. All ages welcome.
Join Vancouver-based artist Paula Nishikawara for a hands-on gyotaku printmaking workshop! In this session, you will learn about the traditional Japanese art of gyotaku, a form of fish printing that captures the beauty and detail of marine life. You will create several of your own unique art prints using real fish, washi (Japanese paper), and paint. Be prepared to see and touch real creatures from the ocean and memorialize them as an artwork while exploring a deeper connection to nature through observation and touch.
All materials provided. Optional: bring your own fabric items (scarves, bags, shirts) to create wearable gyotaku art!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Paula Nishikawara is an international artist based in Canada and Japan. Nishikawara engages in an experiential based art practise with themes of memory, history, culture and language. She often uses traditional Japanese techniques and materials; reinterpreting or redesigning to fit a new discourse in a new time. Her work is an antithesis in an increasingly digital world. Her images are created in real time, using tangible materials and the body, in location, often with others, creating life and more memories.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
From subsistence to livelihood, from sport to ritual, fishing links people from coast to coast to coast. This thematic group exhibition includes work by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists across Canada with ties to the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and the freshwater bodies that flow between. Together the artists explore the complex social and cultural significance of the ancient yet everyday activity of fishing.
