Shimabuku's exhibitions draw a landscape in which art no longer occupies a dominant symbolic position: it is a trace among traces, an activity nourished by multiple parallel activities, objects within a world of objects. He creates a space of coactivity between objects, animals and humans: they all work along together, and he carries their voices.
Nicolas Bourriaud
I first met the Shimabuku at a lunch hosted by the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham where I was a board member at the time. He was working on a project for a collaboration between Ikon and the Chisenhale Gallery in London which involved a journey between the spaces in a canal boat during which he made pickles. This simple acted as both a marking of time, the mapping of distance and the collaboration between a group bought together by the artist. The artworld hadn't garnnered the acceleration of recent years, but the canal boat journey still represented a welcome sense of slowing down. The first exhibition I presented with Shimabukucontinued the culinary theme with a series of slides presented as a rotating presentation of the meals he had enjoyed during his recent travels (anticipating Instagram) and a platform inviting visitors to pass through a rubber band. Later exhibitions involved the gallery hosting a giant tortoise for six weeks which included specialist training in how to take care of him and provide a suitable environment - I think at the same time the most challenging and enjoyable exhibitions I have ever worked on.
Shimabuku presented many other important projects in the Uk including Fish and Chips at the Liverpool Biennale and Swansea Dog competition at the Glyn Vivian Gallery and a project with Whitechapel Gallery where he created the fabulous Sakephirua cocktail. The works made in the UK became the subject of a return retrospective exhibition at Ikon in 2013.
It seemed apt that the gallery should present its first OVR of work by an artist whose work is conversely born out of actions in real life. During this moment of disconnection it has been a pleasure to think about the fun times with Shima and to appreciate his poetic depiction of simple acts that say so much.
