ICN proudly presents Goldfish Salvation 2 by Riusuke Fukahori, an artist internationally acclaimed for his 2012 video on his creative process. This is his second solo exhibition in the UK. The “Fukahori Goldfish” is a painting yet it grasps the ephemeral beauty of the goldfish captured in a flat plane of resin, and is vibrant and almost three-dimensional.
While reflecting on the conceptual idea valued in European and mainstream art culture, the piece puts emphasis on the method and aesthetics valued in Asian art. We hope you will be able to appreciate this ideology in the Fukahori piece.
"I think of goldfish as a living sculpture with man-made modifications. It never reaches the completed form; the goldfish’s vulnerability and imperfections bring out our motherly instinct. I've been bewitched with the strong energy of life of goldfish that has inherited mutations for more than 1500 years, continuously changing forms by man's hands. I've been depicting an uncountable numbers of goldfish in my work, but the mysterious pull towards goldfish will never die for me. The impulse of exploration, "What are goldfish" drives me to create more. Where and how they want to swim, and what they think; these are the questions that I've been asking myself when I paint goldfish. I believe this process will help breathe life into the goldfish in my works." - Riusuke Fukahori
Riusuke Fukahori is an active and internationally acclaimed painter of goldfish. He developed a unique technique of pouring resin into a container, and then directly painting goldfishes on top with acrylic paint. Cautiously pouring resin, waiting for it to harden, then depicting pictures layer after layer allows the lines and colours to come together. This piece, which shows goldfish elegantly swimming in a body of water, is renowned worldwide.