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Over 30,000 live fish create moving psychedelic artworks at Hidetomo Kimura’s art aquarium in Tokyo
The live art exhibition features over 30,000 live fish that are displayed in water tanks and aquariums of different shapes and sizes, including cubes, cylinders and spheres, and is accompanied by multi-coloured LED lights and screens to illuminate the live ‘artworks’.
Japanese artist Hidetomo Kimura’s Art Aquarium Museum 2020 exhibition is a live art exhibition that features thousands of sea creatures, including common and rare species gold fish, and koi carp, and is all set to mesmerize art lovers in Tokyo from August 28 this year. The live art exhibition features over 30,000 live fish that are displayed in water tanks and aquariums of different shapes and sizes, including cubes, cylinders and spheres, and is accompanied by multi-coloured LED lights and screens to illuminate the live ‘artworks’. Koi fish and goldfish are an important part of Japanese culture and according to Kimura, fish are an often overlooked part of Japanese art.
Hidetomo’s Art Aquarium has been temporarily showcasing exhibits every summer since 2007, but this year onward, it will be a permanent exhibit. According to Euronews, Kimura said, “I wanted to create a live art exhibition using real fish instead of items or photographs.”
Timeout Tokyo reported that Kimura wanted to create the shimmering artworks as he wished to combine a ‘specially designed space with the beauty of nature’.
ALSO SEE| PHOTOS: Hidetomo Kimura’s Tokyo art aquarium features 30,000 fish as live artworks
According to his website bio, born in 1972 in Tokyo, Kimura is the first artist to have created art aquariums that fuse together ‘art, design and entertainment with his life work of aquariums’. The artist’s artwork incorporates phantasmagoric aquarium designs which make the artworks seem to be straight out of the magical realm. Phantasmagoric artworks feature abstract, wild and moving images that are in perpetual motion, making them seem larger than life and unreal.
Combine this with high-level water conditioning and Kimura’s knowledge of bio-management, and you have the unique Art Aquarium experience. The exhibits are placed in a darkened room, and the lights of the exhibits are constantly changing, so you are bound to have some unique photographs, given the dynamic nature of the artwork. The large cylindrical artworks almost resemble life-size lava lamps, and from the designs and interiors, to the lighting, imaging, music, and space designs, everything is under the creative direction of Kimura himself.
The artist is also involved in several environmental conservation projects, including the One Ocean Project which carries out ocean conservation activities with ocean athletes. Kimura also started a “new theater-style restaurant and lounge presenting fresh new sensations” in 2018 called SUIGIAN which incorporates “performing arts, foods, artwork, and artistic handicrafts that have been passed down from generation to generation since ancient times.” Traditional performing arts like Noh drama, Kyogen drama, Nihonbuyo dancing, and various others are performed at the restaurant, which promises to encapsulate all your senses, daily. Sharing why he decided to star SUIGIAN, Kimura wrote on his website, “I decided to create a place where people could encounter pure, unadulterated Japanese culture that has evolved properly over generations rather than culture that has been transformed.”
