Private View: Creation between Creatures by AKI INOMATA

The Private View is a chance to have a first look at the works of the artist AKI INOMATA.

Focussing on how the act of ‘making’ is not exclusive to mankind, the artist develops the process of interactions with living creatures into artworks. She presents what is born out of her interactions with living creatures as well as the relationship between humans and animals. This production process, akin to a collaboration with these living creatures, begins with research into the creatures’ behaviour and habitats, and evolves into an exploration of anthropocentrism and how to overcome it, of various issues related to migration and identity, and of the interplay between human beings and the Anthropocene.

For example, one of her most well-known works, Why Not Hand Over a “Shelter” to Hermit Crabs? -Border-, is a project where miniature replicas of cities from around the world are sculpted onto the top of transparent shells of hermit crabs, inviting the crabs literally to “move” from one shell to another. The hermit crabs, which by exchanging shells change their appearance, suggest the difficulty of migrants in changing identities as they move cities, but also a sense of anonymity in the free movement between their “cities”. These themes addressed by INOMATA’s works are becoming more and more relevant in the context of globalisation, and what some perceive to be its increasingly apparent challenges.

IMAGE CAPTION: Think Evolution #1 : Kiku-ishi(Ammonite), 2016-2017 HD video (9:16, 2min.), ammonite fossil, resin, © AKI INOMATA courtesy of MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY    

Exhibition open from Friday 3 April until Monday 25 May 2020.