What happens when an octopus experiences art?

What happens when an octopus experiences art?

When Japanese artist Shimabuku was 31, he took an octopus with him on a tour of Tokyo. After catching it with the help of a local fisherman in Akashi, a coastal city more than three hours from the Japanese capital, he transported the living creature in a temperature-controlled tank of seawater to show it the sights of Tokyo before returning it safely the same day.

An Unusual Adventure

“I thought it would be nice,” the 56-year-old artist said of the experience during a video call from his home in Naha, Japan. "I started traveling when I was 20. But octopus may not travel that often - and when they do, they tend to get eaten. I wanted to take an octopus on a trip, but not to be eaten."

The trip to Tokyo

Shimabuku documented the experience on video and took the octopus to Tokyo Tower before visiting the Tsukiji fish market, where the animal reacted "very strongly" to other octopuses for sale, the artist said. “Octopuses are smart – maybe he told his friends in the sea about his experiences (on his return).” The interspecific day trip led to the 2000 video work “Then, I Decided to Give a Tour of Tokyo to the Octopus from Akashi,” which laid the foundation for a series of projects Shimabuku undertook over the decades interacting with octopuses in playful, curious ways.

Exhibitions in Great Britain

Some of this work is currently on display in the UK in two exhibitions exploring humanity's relationship with nature and animal life: " More than human “ at the Design Museum in London (until October 5th) and “ Sea Inside “ at the Sainsbury Center in Norwich (until October 26th).

Octopus curiosity

Fascinated by what the sea creatures might think, feel or like, Shimabuku documented their reactions to various experiences, from the Tokyo city tour to specially designed artwork. “You have a curiosity,” he said. "For some other animals, it's all about eating and reproducing. But I think octopuses have time to roam - time for hobbies."

Catching octopuses

While living in the Japanese city of Kobe, Shimabuku went fishing with local fishermen and took the opportunity to learn more about octopuses. “Traditionally, we catch octopus in empty ceramic pots – that’s the custom of my hometown,” he said. Fishermen throw hundreds of pots into the sea, wait two days and then bring them back - and find octopuses in them. “Octopuses like tight spaces, so they just climb in,” Shimabuku explained.

The octopus finds

When he saw the animals in the pots, he noticed that they were “collecting things”: shells, stones, even pieces of broken beer bottles. He began preserving the small objects the octopuses had collected—“a collection of a collection,” as he called it.

Octopus artwork

Given the creatures' passion for collecting, Shimabuku began to think: "Maybe I can make sculptures for them," the artist recalled. In his 2010 work “Sculpture for Octopuses: Exploring for Their Favorite Colors,” Shimabuku designed a selection of small glass balls and vessels in various colors. First he went out in a fishing boat and threw the sculptures into the sea, “like a gift to the octopuses.” But soon he wanted to see how the animals reacted to the objects.

Octopus reactions

Working with the now-closed Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, he repeated the experiment in a large water tank where he was able to film the octopuses' reactions. “They played with them and sometimes they carried them,” Shimabuku said. Does he know why? “Maybe they have too many legs – so they want to grab something,” the artist mused. “They keep touching.” The resulting film and photographs show the octopuses wrapping their tentacles around some of the glass objects, grabbing them and rolling them across the sand, and even holding them in their suction roots as they move along the tank's wall.

Latest projects in Spain

In 2024, Shimabuku had a landmark solo exhibition at Centro Botín in Santander, Spain. Especially for the exhibition, he collected a selection of glass and ceramic pots to offer to local octopuses. Some of the vessels were made by the artist, others came from “thrift stores and eBay.” Off the coast of the Spanish city, Shimabuku lowered the vessels to the seabed and then dived down with a film camera to see how the octopuses there reacted to the vessels. As expected, some climbed in.

Colors and attraction

Although octopuses are colorblind, Shimabuku wanted to use these projects to find out whether they are attracted to objects of certain colors. “What I’ve heard from fishermen is that octopus like red,” he said. “Earlier in Kobe I found an octopus in a red pot, so I think they like red.” Perhaps more than the color itself, Shimabuku believes octopuses are attracted to very "smooth, shiny" glass objects. Although he has no evidence of this, Shimabuku's projects are not intended to be scientific experiments. Here, a man fascinated by eight-legged mollusks devotes his time to exploring them artistically.