Shimabuku
Self Portrait

In Shimabuku’s third solo exhibition at Galerie Barbara Wien – titled Self Portrait and featuring works from 1991 to 2023 – we encounter an artist whose works usually arise and develop in and through interaction with other cultures and beings, human and non-human. His artistic approach is mostly characterised by straight- forward and somewhat open concepts – based on elementary questions about daily habits and routines. Most of his works are accompanied by a text that introduces the viewer to the ideas behind them, typically in a succinct, concentrated form.These texts are usually displayed alongside his photographs, videos, sculptures or installations.

Following his thirst for knowledge and his curiosity, Shimabuku often appears as a performer or mediator in his works, as if on stage. He remains fully present throughout the creative process, openly expressing his thoughts. In doing so, he inspires others to explore themselves and build networks with other people. Therefore, it is no surprise that he continues to engage in dialogue with artists and theorists such as Philippe Parreno,RirkritTiravanija,and Nicolas Bourriaud,whom he met during his first solo exhibition in Europe at Air de Paris in 1999. In 1998, Bourriaud published his essay collection Esthétique relationnelle, in which he provided a theory for the participatory art forms that were current at the time.¹

While still a student, Shimabuku (who graduated from Osaka College of Art in 1990 and the San Francisco Art Institute in 1992) made his Tour of Europe with One Eyebrow Shaved (1991).The title initially evokes an educational trip,however,Shimabuku describes his‘tour’ as follows: “One day, I shaved one of my eyebrows on the London underground.Then I traveled through 11 countries in Europe. Because I had only one eyebrow, people looked at me in shock, but I also made a lot of friends.” In the gallery, we show this iconic work by Shimabuku, a black-and-white photograph and a text. In the photo, we look directly at the young artist’s face as he shaves his left eyebrow.
Installed in the same room of the gallery, the colour photograph Cucumber Journey (2000) documents another one of Shimabuku’s trips, following a pre-planned concept with a somewhat open ending.This time, the journey was from London to Birmingham. Shimabuku decided to take this trip by boat, covering the distance in two weeks along a canal built in the eighteenth century. During the journey, he pickled fresh vegetables and cucumbers he had bought in London.“When I conceived of this project I didn’t know how to make pickles, but by the end of my trip I had learned something about it and my pickled tomatoes were quite good.While traveling from London to Birmingham, I gathered recipes for pickles from people I met […].” One of the recurring questions during the journey was: “Why is making pickles while traveling on a boat art?”The photo shows the artist sitting on a boat facing people on the riverbank.

The sculptural work with his voice, Born as a Box (2001/2025), refers to Shimabuku’s time as a worker at a shipping company in Nagoya.“Every day I dealt with hundreds of boxes in many different sizes and, at a certain point, I started hearing the boxes talk to me.”²

In the digital slideshow, Sculpture for Octopuses: Exploring for Their Favorite Colors – Aquarium in Kobe (2019),
we similarly do not find a visual portrait of Shimabuku. However,we do witness the artist’s personal interest

in playful and experimental encounters with animals. Twenty-two underwater scenes depict octopuses inter- acting with colourful glass objects and vases which Shimabuku had laid out for them.The slides show the animals approaching and engaging with the glass objects. Shimabuku has been studying octopus behaviour since he was a student – he has continuously engaged with these highly intelligent, alien creatures. For example, in 2000, he travelled with one of them, sheltered in a temperature- controlled water tank, from Akashi, on the southern coast of Japan to Tokyo and back.While in Tokyo, he showed the octopus the Tower of Tokyo and the Tsukiji fish market, where some of its own kind were on sale. This journey is documented in the video Octopuses are smart – maybe he told his experience to his octopus friends in the sea (after returning) from 2000.

In his work Passing through the Rubber Band (2000), installed in the foyer of the gallery, Shimabuku asks the visitors to participate and explore their own physical dimensions.“Feel free to take a new rubber band out of the box and pass your body through it,” reads the instruction on the wall text.

Finally, the installation Cuban Samba Remix (by NOMURA Makoto) from 2023, has its own exhibition space and invites the viewer to experience various spheric sounds. Shimabuku’s first water dripping sound work was created in a former bicycle factory in Havana during his participation in the Havana Biennial in 2015.The roof was rotten, and water was dripping from a broken pipe into the middle of the room. Shimabuku placed empty tin cans under the falling drops, and thus music was created. This inspired him to invite his musician friend Nomura Makoto to play the piano along with the sound of the water drops.

Text: Barbara Buchmaier

1. ¹ Nicolas Bourriaud’s Esthétique relationnelle was first published in France in 1998. In 2002, it was translated into English and published under the title Relational Aesthetics.

2. ²  Quoted from “Me,We – A Love Song. Shimabuku in conversatio with Haegue Yang,” published in the booklet accompanying Shimabuku’s solo exhibition Me,We at MUSEION in Bolzano, Italy in 2023, p. 78.