Moko Fukuyama

NADA NY
548 West 22nd St., New York NY
May 2-5, 2024

Moko Fukuyama’s sculpture, A Kind of Pain, considers a fish’s neural circuits of visual perception while exploring spiritual and ethical ambiguities of harvesting aquatic ecosystems.  Fukuyama started recreational sport-fishing several years ago and found lure fishing to be way of capturing fish in their natural habitat, through manipulation.  Lures come in a variety of shapes, colors and flavors, playing on the fish’s hyper-sensitivity to fluctuations in water temperature, light, pressure and more. The angler’s gambit necessitates the use of enticing lures, and Fukuyama reflects that the craftsmanship of creating lures is essentially psychological, considering appetite, deception, and a fish’s optical sensitivities to the movement of sunlight beneath water.

A Kind of Pain is inspired by the design and function of fishing lures, exploring ideas of desirable objects, trickery and transformation. The “lure,” was constructed from a Walnut log.  Part of the timber is raw, untouched, while the lure component is carved, sanded, finished with automotive paint and epoxy resin, designed with real lure-making techniques and materials. It is beyond human dimensions: approximately one foot in diameter and ten feet in length, contending with attraction and tension.  The sculpture rests on pedestals.

Fukuyama notes, “So much of our relationship to a subject depends on our angle of perception. A Kind of Pain, therefore, challenges our perspectives on our ecosystem, examining what constitutes attraction and prey.”