TOPAZ COLLAGES: One Family’s Experience
By Jeanie Kashima
Exhibit Dates: January 22 to March 30, 2024
J-Sei Gallery Hours: MWF 10-1, TuTh 1-5
A series of collages emerged from family photos as artist Jeanie Kashima reflected on her early years, born in the Topaz concentration camp in Utah. After her mother Amy Takaki passed away at the age of 104 years, Kashima began work on her collages. While many do not have photos from their early years behind barbed wire, the Takaki family has a set of photos that document their journey and inspired the new work.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which ordered 120,000 Japanese Americans to be forcibly removed from their homes to the interior of the United States. Taken from their spacious and comfortable home in Berkeley, the Takaki family was forced to adapt to living in horse stalls at the Tanforan Race Track. After several months, they were taken by train to Delta, Utah. Jeanie Takaki was the first baby born in the Topaz concentration camp and spent her formative years living with her family in the arid desert until 1945.
Topaz Collages provide a visceral landscape of one family’s experience of wartime incarceration.
ARTIST TALK with Jeanie Kashima – Sat, March 16, 2 pm
Hear from textile artist Jeanie Kashima on her inspiration and creative process in making Topaz Collages. Enjoy refreshments and celebrate this moving and captivating story and visual expression. RSVP for artist talk.