Glenn Kaino: Aki’s Market 

Production | Exhibition Grant

Glenn Kaino’s VR installation Aki’s Market draws from the life of the artist’s grandfather, Akira Shiraishi, a legendary high school football player who was unable to realize his dreams of attending Occidental College when he was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming as part of the US’s internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Upon returning to East LA after the war, he and Kaino’s grandmother, Sachiye Shiraishi, dedicated their lives to building a market on the corner of Blanchard Street and Geraghty Avenue—a multicultural anchor that served the Japanese and Hispanic communities. Aki’s Market presents viewers with a virtual reality exploration of their humble but historic corner store. Kaino designed the virtual version of the store through a series of interviews with his extended family. Donning a VR headset, audience members will navigate through a virtual recreation of the 1950’s location. The work is an exercise in collective remembering, and an argument for the power of art to create powerful spaces of exploration. It is a conceptual space wherein the archival bleeds into the imaginary, and it is an example of how the most advanced technology can service the most personal past.

For more information, visit Japanese American National Museum.