Kellen Hatanaka explores issues of contemporary culture in his multidisciplinary artistic practice. Hatanaka’s personal experiences as a Japanese-Canadian inform his creation of vibrant, figurative-based paintings and works on paper that examine the xenophobic, discriminatory undercurrents in sport and the community members who defy them. Hatanaka’s recent projects have particularly focused around the history of the Asahi Japanese Canadian baseball team. Active from 1914 – 1942, the Asahi team rose to prominence and became a championship-winning dynasty before it was disbanded during World War II as a result of the Japanese-Canadian incarceration. The rise and fall of the team emerge as a metaphor for Hatanaka’s exploration of the loss of identity and culture experienced by Japanese-Canadians as a result of the incarceration, and the Asahi’s enduring legacy as a symbol of hope and pride in the face of deep racism and anti-Japanese sentiment.
Hatanaka’s Smokestack Published Edition, The Sun Rises Wherever We Are represents Hatanaka’s most recent work in his ongoing visual investigations into the Asahi team. With collaborative support from Smokestack’s analog printmaker, Laine Groeneweg, Hatanaka’s approach sought to preserve the qualities of improvised mark-marking and collage integration used in his painting process while embracing the unique characteristics of printmaking.
Speaking to his personal and community experiences informing the work, Hatanaka shares,
Having the identity of Nikkei to belong to creates a strong sense of community amongst Japanese living outside of Japan which is important to me and all Japanese Canadians especially since our sense of community was shattered during the incarceration and afterwards. I think the Asahi are a symbol of hope and triumph for all Nikkei people and people of any diaspora. A story of resilience and the ability to thrive and triumph over adversity in the most difficult of social situations. “The Sun Rises Wherever We Are” attempts to capture the sentiment that wherever we are in the world and whatever may come, our history, cultures and traditions will always be there with us. It also brings a sense of hopefulness to the work reinforcing that whatever happened yesterday, the sun will always rise and we will carry on.
Kellen Hatanaka is a visual artist based in Stratford, ON. His work has been presented and distributed in a multitude of forms across Canada and internationally in the United States, including public painted murals, gallery and museum exhibitions, and publication features in Victory Journal, ArtMaze Magazine and Graphite Journal. In 2016 he was awarded the Governor General’s Award with Jon-Erik Lappano for their book, Tokyo Digs a Garden.
