2026
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan
Commissioned by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (FAAM), Japan, for its permanent collection
Shown in the exhibition South Asia Through the Veins of Light
Sep 19, 2026 – Jan 11, 2027
Neon installed in FAAM’s main gallery and in the lobby
Special thanks to FAAM’s Senior Curator Rina Igarashi; Curator Gentaro Sasaki; International Coordinator Midori Miyakawa; Curator Ayaka Kurahashi; and Registrar/Assistant Curator Honoka Shimazu.
Shimada Neon, Tokyo, and team led by Kei Moriyama produced and installed the project.
Subaqueous reflects on the fragile yet indispensable organisms inhabiting underwater marine environments. These ecosystems support an intricate network of aquatic life while maintaining ecological balance. Many marine plants are naturally bioluminescent, but ecotoxic pollution and contamination have also transformed these environments, creating distorted forms and heightened color intensities that bear witness to ongoing ecological disruption.
The Subaqueous installation visualizes these often-overlooked organisms by translating them into luminous, large-scale neon forms. Reimagined within the museum space, they become radiant presences. Suspended between drawing and sculpture, their enlarged scale and intensified colors invite viewers to encounter these organisms anew. A blue channel runs through the installation, threading one organism to the next.
This luminous network suggests the larger web of relationships that sustain life, which evolved from the oceans and has remained deeply connected to the vast aquatic environment that covers more than seventy percent of the Earth's surface. Oceans are fundamental to every ecosystem and to our own survival, even as their ecological balance is increasingly threatened by overexploitation and climate change.
The glowing forms of Subaqueous are both celebratory and elegiac. They illuminate the extraordinary splendor of these marine organisms while reminding us of their increasing vulnerability to ecotoxicity. Above all, the project is a meditation on the vital connections that bind all living organisms and beings.