Oscar Oiwa “Oil Octopus in the era of turbulent currents”

《Oil Octopus 1》 2024

《Oil Octopus 2》 2024

Modern Ocean Wildlife installation view, Zhengbin Fishing Port, Taiwan.
Photo courtesy: Keelung Ciao 2023

《Aquarium》 1999

《Green River 1》 2023

《Boat and waves 2》 2023

（Reference Photo）2023落山風藝術季 -風的頻率- Luo Shan Feng Arts Festival（2023/12/15 - 2024/2/25）Installation view 、看海美術館 in Taiwan

“Oil Octopus in the era of turbulent currents”

At the turn of the century, in 1999, I was living in Tokyo, and that year I painted a picture called “Aquarium”. This picture, which fantasized about the future at that time, depicted a variety of creatures. Among them is an octopus-like “oil octopus” that looks like a small bottle leaking oil. What would this octopus think if it were observing the world today? This question is the theme of this exhibition. At that time, the population of the earth was 6 billion, and it was said that the world's computers would crash by the year 2000. It was also said that oil would run out someday, but global warming had not yet progressed very far. Electric cars were not widespread, and solar and wind energy were not yet widely used.

Twenty-five years later, the Earth's population has grown by 33% and we have reached 8 billion people. With this increase, changes in nature have become more noticeable. Abnormal weather events such as wildfires, heat waves, and torrential rains have become more frequent, and last year Japan experienced the hottest summer on record. In addition to global environmental issues, there is a coronavirus pandemic that started in 2019, and wars are happening in many places.

These curious events that are happening around me are the inspiration for the creation of my works. Although the works in this exhibition appear to be different, they are grouped into several series, and each series is related to each other.



This work was created for Keelung Tidal Art, an art festival in northern Taiwan. There are various currents in the ocean, and there are about five places in the world where garbage collects in whirlpools. We came up with a storyline in which common trash floating in the ocean (plastic bottles, bottles and cans) are made into characters that go out to the world's oceans to fish for trash fish gathered by the tides.

< Hell's Kitchen series >
Hell's Kitchen series “Hell's Kitchen” is the name of the neighborhood in New York City where I currently live. It is close to Times Square and has a high concentration of restaurants, but it used to be a very dangerous place. This series of works has a duality, as if there is a war for survival going on in the midst of a common, everyday kitchen.


< Mascot Series >
Mascot Series This series was born out of my solo exhibition at the Japan Cultural Institute in Paris in 2019, where I was commissioned to create large drawings inspired by the Olympics, with the theme of the exhibition coinciding with the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for 2020. However, during the exhibition period, there was a major strike in France, and the exhibition was cancelled. The same exhibition was subsequently held in Tokyo, but the exhibition was also disrupted during the Corona disaster. The oil mascot series, which was originally planned to be exhibited together with the drawings, was difficult to exhibit in a public space, and this is the first time it will be shown in Tokyo.

< Silent Ocean >
Silent Ocean I was in New York when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and I was so shocked that I painted this picture. I thought that if I exhibited this work in Japan, it might bring back painful memories for some people, so I kept it for many years.

There are many problems in the world, but thanks to you, I live a relatively peaceful life. Every morning from Monday to Saturday, I take the subway for about 20 minutes to my studio and work until dark. I work quietly every day and occasionally go out for exhibitions and projects, interacting with people from all over the world. 8 billion people may seem like a mere number, but I have relationships with several hundred of them.