2010, installation, 12 glass balls, drawing and photo, pedestal, acrylic cover, text on card, 97 x 80 x 55 cm
Courtesy Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin

Octopuses find their homes in confined spaces. This makes them convenient to catch. In an early engagement of his with octopuses, Shimabuku would draw on ancient Mediterranean and Japanese fishing traditions, offering up vessels — amphoras, clay pots, vases — strung up on long lines of rope to unsuspecting octopuses for shelter . . . and pull them up for harvest.
In Sculpture for Octopuses, he conceives a different kind of offering. “Octopuses often pick up stones and seashells on the ocean floor. I decided to make some pieces of sculpture for them.” Instead of deceiving octopuses for human gains, he reverts to gifting octopuses. In the olden days — that of course still very much are with us — people would make offerings to the Gods and other higher powers to improve or avert their destiny; Shimabuku’s marbles and the way he delivers them are reminiscent of such rituals. Such practices build on fearful trust (or hope) in powers that are more powerful than oneself and capable of controlling one’s fate. While they may also acknowledge the limitations of human power, they equally embody capitalistic relations of exchange, where we accept something in return for our investment and aim to bring those (external/superior) powers under control by coercing them into submission to our will with glistening commodities.
But Shimabuku does not expect anything in return. His offering is provided for octopuses to enjoy themselves, to give them something they might relish in. Such extension of kindness and generosity across species-barriers does not only acknowledge the nonhuman as desiring individuals, with tastes and wishes and lives of their own. It also practices solidarity instead of coercing exploitation. In an age where our appropriation of natural resources is poised to leave a barren earth, what kind of fate do such offerings beseech?

Shimabuku is a visual artist currently living in Okinawa. In his artistic work, he focuses on everyday life interactions between living beings, nonhuman and artificial objects. In search of different features of seemingly identical objects and similarities among diverse protagonists, his artistic work aims to raise timeless and philosophical questions about life. His work belongs to international art collections and was shown recently, for example, at Museum Tinguely Basel (2020), CAC Cincinnati, Modern Museen Malmö, Québec City Biennial (2019), le Crédac Ivry-sur-Seine, Denver Art Museum, A. Wilkinson Gallery London (2018), 14th Biennale de Lyon (2017–2018) and 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017). — www.shimabuku.net

See also the short interview with Shimabuku: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ogkcNM_AY