LOUISE NOGUCHI “EYES LOCKED: HUNTER AND PREY” (Artist in Conversation)

LOUISE NOGUCHI
“EYES LOCKED: HUNTER AND PREY”
(Artist in Conversation)

Doors Open: 6 pm
Presentation: 6:30 to 8 pm
Location: The Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre (2nd Floor, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts)

For over forty years, Louise Noguchi has been inspired by the contradictions of identity, employing humor, shock, and subtle intellect manifested in a multiplicity of media: sculpture, the moving image, photography, text, drawing and performance art. In Noguchi’s own words, her “work is a battleground of opposites. The artist as hunter and prey simultaneously.”

In conversation with Moving Image artist, Midi Onodera, Noguchi will discuss the context of artmaking in Canada from the early 80s to the present, the politics of identity and how she tracks cultural markers in her work. Noguchi began her art career at a time when there were only a handful of practicing Japanese Canadian artists, feminism was starting to infiltrate patriarchal structures and post-modernist practices were paving the way for contemporary art of the 21st century. This discussion will be followed by a Q&A.

About the Artists

Louise Noguchi challenges her audience with themes that pose psychological questions. Using photography, sculpture, video and other media, Noguchi’s concepts confront the spectator’s notions of identity, perception and reality. Her work has been exhibited at the Power Plant, Toronto, Neuer Berliner Kuntsverein, Berlin and the Deutsches Museum, Munich. Her artwork has been exhibited in Canada and internationally, including exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Centre A, Vancouver, Neuer Berliner Kuntsverein, Berlin, The Embassy of Canada Prince Takamado Gallery, Tokyo, and the Deutsches Museum, Munich. Upcoming exhibitions in 2025 include a solo exhibition at the ArtGallery of Ontario, Toronto and Nuit Blanche at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto. Noguchi lives and works in Toronto and was a professor in the Art and Art History Program, a collaborative program between the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College.

Midi Onodera is an award-winning moving image artist who has been making films and videos for 40 years. In 2018, Midi received the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts. Her work is laced with markers of her experiences as a feminist, lesbian, JapaneseCanadianwoman. She has produced over 25 independent shorts, ranging from 16mm film to digital video to toy camera formats. Her film The Displaced View (1988) was nominated for Best Documentary at the Gemini Awards. Skin Deep (1995), her theatrical feature, screened internationally at festivals including the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2006 she has made over 600+ Vidoodles (defined as bite-sized 30 second to 2 minute video doodles). For the past 18 years she presents an annual video project addressing themes of language, media, politics, and the everyday. Her online videos can be viewed at: www.midionodera.com.

Event Background

Louise Noguchi’s talk is part of the pilot program, The Japanese Canadian Legacy Artists Talk Series presented by the Asian Canadian Studies Society as part of The Heart of the City Festival. We gratefully acknowledge the support and financial assistance from the SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, City of Vancouver’s Communities and Artists Shifting Cultures Grant, Simon Fraser University's David Lam Centre, and Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, Canada