Picture preview: Goldfish Salvation

Ten years ago when the artist Riusuke Fukahori struggled to find inspiration, it came to him when he looked at his pet goldfish. Ever since he has painted fish using acrylic painted on clear resin poured into three-dimensional containers to give the impression of fish in water. His work is currently on show at the ICN gallery in London.

The show’s title, Goldfish Salvation, is a homonym of the Japanese expression ‘Kingyo Sukui’ which normally means ‘Goldfish scooping’. The show gives direct credit to the fish as saviour of his art.

The story of this salvation goes that, a decade ago, while distressed with his career as an artist Fukahori noticed the fish tank beside his bed which housed a goldfish. He looked down into the dirty fish tank and saw the goldfish’s shiny red silhouette was extremely beautiful.

 Thinking to himself “I’m sure she will save me”, he took out his red paint and painted her figure, a moment later there was a large shoal of goldfish in front of him. This was the day he calls ‘Kingyo sukui’, the day he was saved by the goldfish.

“I will keep searching for the motivation for my activities as an artist and my identity through goldfish. While salvaged and suffered by goldfish, I will live with goldfish and stare at myself further.” - Riusuke Fukahori

Goldfish Salvation is at the ICN until 11 January 2012, www.icn-global.com