Vancouver Japanese Language School–Japanese Hall: Room 407

All Day Programming/Event: Saturday, August 1 @ 12-1pm

A suspended fishing net references Japanese Canadian coastal labour histories and serves as a framework for a growing collection of participant-created dresses. Inspired by the artist’s family history of dressmaking, fishing, and cannery work, the installation unfolds between two zones: a monochrome past and a brightly coloured future. Full-sized hand sewn and painted dresses, based on patterns once made by the artist’s grandmother, anchor the work and prompt dialogue about memory, labour, and transformation. Visitors are invited to decorate miniature paper dresses and hang them to create an evolving collective artwork. Together, the life-sized and miniature dresses create an ever-growing landscape of memory, resilience, renewal, and shared storytelling. 

Led by the artist, participants will decorate miniature paper dresses inspired by intricate quarter-scale garment patterns originally made by her grandmother. Using colour, text, names, memories, and hopes for the future, visitors will personalize their dresses before attaching them to the suspended fishing net with miniature wooden clothes pegs. As the festival progresses, the installation will grow into a collective expression of visible mending, shared storytelling, and intergenerational connection.  

Artist Biography:  Arleigh Endo Wood is a Japanese Canadian mixed media artist based in East Vancouver. Her current work explores memory, labour, and the shifting meaning of home, drawing from family histories of fishing, cannery, and garment work. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally, and is represented by the Vancouver Art Gallery Rental and Sales Program and Art Interiors, Toronto.