Mia Ohki | I Know What It Looks Like

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Mia Ohki, “Redefine,” 2018

acrylic on canvas (courtesy of Art Gallery of St. Albert)

Mia Ohki delves into her heritage and our nation’s history in I Know What This Looks Like with her evocative works gently walking the viewer into the past. This exhibition in the Art Gallery of St. Albert’s Feature Staircase space explores the parallels between two particularly damaging chapters in Canadian history – the Internment of Japanese Canadians in WWII and the generational trauma caused by residential schools.

Sitting with these traumatic histories, Mia recons with her own inheritance. Hailing from both Japanese and Métis ancestry, she learned about these histories from family members. Listening, she could feel the powerful emotions as they reverberated down the generations. Through extensive research, Mia developed I Know What It Looks Like to add her voice to the work of advocacy and remembrance.

With a minimalist aesthetic, each element in the works commands a powerful resonance. Choosing a limited colour palette of red and yellow ochre, orange, black and white, was an act of acknowledgement and reclamation.

“In the past, these colors were used to discriminate, to define individuals by their skin, and to create fear based around an incorrect perception. I hope to give these colours new meaning,” Ohki says.

For Mia, these works are a pathway to extend care and comfort to the survivors and their descendants. The works feature florals, textiles and patterns that were preserved by communities and held close by those who lived this history. Rendered with beauty and elegance, Mia presents them as symbols of survival.

I Know What This Looks Like is a gentle invitation to feel through the past, to connect and foster compassion - for oneself, one’s family, ancestors and community. The traumas of the past are present in all of us. Mia feels that it is our collective responsibility to care for those wounds, to extend care and patience as we all work towards healing.

Events: In-person Tour: September 3 at noon

Virtual Tour: September 13 at noon on Facebook Live

Artist Led Workshop: September 28 from 10 am to noon and from 2-4 pm

Contact: Phone 780.460.4310 (Emily Baker, Curator)

Email: exhibitions@artsandheritage.ca