Things on the Shoreline

Things on the Shoreline the illustrated storybook, is the culmination of a collaborative project initiated by Access Gallery, visual artist Cindy Mochizuki, and the students of Lord Strathcona Elementary School and the Vancouver Japanese Language School. Working with a drawing process that began with the visualization of a barren seashore—the empty page—and using the simple materials of ink, salt, and imagination, the classroom workshops brought forth a raucous population of whimsical inky creaturely things. The results of these workshops were exhibited at Access Gallery between February 12 and April 16, 2016. The final iteration of the project is a limited-edition, hard-bound children’s storybook, written and illustrated by Mochizuki, which draws its inspiration from these student-led workshops. The story's plot line follows the metaphor of the drawing process, showing how—with a little patience—an empty shoreline holds the potential for all kinds of unexpected Things to spring forth.

Cindy Mochizuki creates installations, performance, animation, drawings, and community-engaged projects which consider spaces that embody both the fictional and documentary. Often working with archival sources, memory work and interviews; her practice revisits historical and personal memory. A large body of her work investigates narratives and memories within the archive of familial architecture, including childhood spaces, home videos, photography, and oral histories. Her community-engaged projects include Shako Club (Grunt Gallery, 2015), Fortune House (Koganecho Bazaar, 2014), and Bow Wow and Slow Trades & The Collections Turtle (City of Vancouver Parks Board Strathcona Field House, 2013). Recent exhibitions include: AIR 475, (2014) Yonago, Japan, Fictive Communities Asia, Koganecho Bazaar (2014), On the Subject of Ghosts, Hamilton Artists Inc (2013), Yokai & Other Spirits, Toronto Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (2013), and To|From BC Electric Railway 100 Years, Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2012).