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When the Japanese artist Shimabuku was 31 years previous, he took an octopus on a tour of Tokyo. After catching it from the ocean with the assistance of a neighborhood fisherman in Akashi, a coastal metropolis over 3 hours away from the Japanese capital by practice, he transported the dwell creature in a temperature-controlled tank of seawater to indicate it the sights of Tokyo earlier than returning it safely to its residence the identical day.
“I thought it would be nice,” the artist, now 56, stated in regards to the expertise, over a video name from his residence in Naha, Japan. “I started to travel when I was 20 years old. But octopuses, maybe they don’t travel so much — and when they do, they are just going to be eaten. I wanted to take an octopus on a trip, but not to be eaten.”
Documenting it on video, Shimabuku took the octopus to see the Tokyo Tower, earlier than visiting the Tsukiji fish market, the place the animal “reacted very strongly” to seeing different octopuses on sale, the artist stated. “Octopuses are smart — maybe he told his experience to his octopus friends in the sea (after returning).”
The interspecies day journey, ensuing within the 2000 video work “Then, I Decided to Give a Tour of Tokyo to the Octopus from Akashi,” kickstarted a sequence of tasks Shimabuku has undertaken over the many years that interact with octopuses in playful, inquisitive methods. A portion of this work is presently on present within the UK, in two exhibitions that discover humanity’s relationship with nature and animal life: “More than Human” on the Design Museum in London (via October 5) and “Sea Inside” on the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich (via October 26).
Fascinated by what the ocean creatures would possibly suppose, really feel, or like, Shimabuku has documented their reactions to numerous experiences, from the town tour of Tokyo to being given specifically crafted artworks. “They have a curiosity,” he stated. “For some other animals, it’s only about eating and making love. But I think octopuses have time to wander — time for hobbies.”
When he lived within the Japanese metropolis of Kobe, Shimabuku would go on fishing journeys with native fisherman, taking the chance to find out about octopuses. “Traditionally we catch octopuses in empty ceramic pots — that’s my hometown custom,” he stated. Fishermen would throw tons of of pots into the ocean, wait two days, then retrieve them — discovering octopuses inside. “Octopuses like narrow spaces so they just come into it,” defined Shimabuku.
When he noticed the animals throughout the pots, he found they had been “carrying things”: shells, stones, even bits of damaged beer bottles. He started to avoid wasting the small objects the octopuses had gathered — “a collection of a collection,” he stated.
In mild of the creatures’ amassing behavior, Shimabuku began to suppose, “maybe I can make sculptures for them,” the artist recalled. In his 2010 work “Sculpture for Octopuses: Exploring for Their Favorite Colors,” Shimabuku crafted a choice of small glass balls and vessels, in varied colours. At first, he went out in a fishing boat and threw the sculptures within the sea, “like a present to the octopuses.” But then he wished to see how the animals had been reacting to the objects.
Collaborating with the now-closed Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, he repeated the trouble in a big water tank, the place he may movie the response of octopuses.
“They played with them, and sometimes they carried them,” stated Shimabuku. Does he know why? “Maybe they have too many hands — so they want to grab something,” the artist mirrored. “They keep touching, touching.” The ensuing movie, and images, present the octopuses wrapping their tentacles round a few of the glass objects, grabbing and rolling them throughout the sand, and even holding them of their suckers as they transfer throughout the facet of the tank.
In 2024, Shimabuku had a landmark solo present at Centro Botín in Santander, Spain. Specially for the exhibition, he collected an assortment of glass and ceramic pots to supply to native octopuses. Some of the vessels had been made by the artist and others had been from “second-hand shops and eBay.” Off the coast of the Spanish metropolis, Shimabuku dropped the vessels on to the ocean mattress, subsequently diving down with a movie digicam to see how the octopuses there reacted to the vessels. As anticipated, some had climbed inside.
Although octopuses are colorblind, Shimabuku wished to see via these tasks whether or not they had been attracted to things of sure colours. “What I heard from fishermen is that octopuses like red,” he stated. “Long ago in Kobe, I found an octopus in a red pot, so I believe they like red.” Perhaps extra so than the hue, Shimabuku is satisfied that octopuses are drawn to very “smooth, shiny” glass objects. He doesn’t have proof to again this up, however then once more Shimabuku’s tasks aren’t supposed as scientific experiments. Here, a person entranced by eight-legged mollusks is dedicating his time to participating with them via artwork.