Shimabuku, Visiting Artist Lecture 2025

Shimabuku gives a lecture at Skowhegan, talking about his work which focuses on site specificity, social practice, collaboration, video, performance, working with nature and animals and addressing key themes such as humour, escape, and freedom. Shimabuku uses themes of playfulness and humour to talk about the process of being a student and learning, and not necessarily being an artist in order to demonstrate his abilities and what he can do. For Shimabuku, having a studio space is not necessarily a part of his practice. Shimabuku tells the participants that he would rather work in more site specificity whether they are cities, landscapes, and particular neighbourhoods, stressing in particular all the site specific work he has done in the United Kingdom and France. Simabuku also states how he considers cooking–which he does a lot of–to be an important part of his artistic practice because he sees his kitchen as a part of his studio. Shimabuku ends his lecture by stating that he always wanted to utilize his artistic practice to discover new processes and emphasize the importance of being patient and slowing down. Shimabuku never wants to hurry as an artist, and if sometimes his artistic projects only happen once a year or twice a year, that is completely fine with him.