In “108 Spectres of Release,” Mitchell Akiyama animates the historic Buddhist temple bell on the West Island, given to Ontario Place by Japanese-Ontarians in 1977. Akiyama transforms the bell itself into a speaker, which replays recordings of Akiyama’s grandmother, who was in attendance at the bell’s original inauguration ceremony. Born in Canada, Akiyama’s grandmother was interned during the Second World War and later displaced by government-mandated relocation to eastern Canada before she eventually settled in Toronto. Reviving the bell, Akiyama allows his grandmother’s voice to surface tensions between memorialization and lived experience. “108 Spectres of Release” serves as a deeply personal articulation of Japanese-Canadian history in a space where the bell’s commemorative function has largely ceased.
Curated by Art Spin (Layne Hinton & Rui Pimenta)