SATORU TAMURA

The spinning crocodile was first conceived in the fall of 1994, when Tamura was still a student at the University of Tsukuba. He was struggling with an assignment given by his professor—to create an artwork that uses electricity. At the time, Tamura had never made an electric or kinetic work before. Stumped, he decided to make whatever first popped into his head the next morning, which ended up being “spinning crocodiles.” Tamura stuck to his word and hand-sculpted a green, 4.5-meter-long crocodile mounted on a rotating pedestal. The artist was enthralled by the ridiculousness of the resulting work and went on to pursue similarly absurdist concepts after graduation. Electricity and mechanics have since become integral parts of Tamura’s practice, and the spinning crocodiles have continued to evolve alongside the artist’s career.

In 2022, Tamura took on the extraordinary task of building 1,000 crocodile devices to fill a massive exhibition space in The National Art Center, Tokyo. He meticulously hand-crafted every single one out of clay, streamlining the process as he went along. The artist further emphasized the crocodiles’ individuality by giving them unique names and adjusting their rotational speeds to produce slight variations. Perhaps that is why they possess a distinct warmth and personality, despite their motorized movements.

In Japan, crocodiles do not exist in the wild—common conception frames them as dangerous, exotic animals rarely seen outside captivity. Tamura exaggerates this alienness by making drastic changes in color and scale—the crocodiles can be cobalt blue, bright orange, or even stark white, and range anywhere from 20 centimeters to 12 meters long. There is a sort of childlike joy in seeing these terrifying creatures transformed into harmless, kitschy characters. Curiously, the further Tamura’s crocodiles stray from reality, the more endearing and approachable they become.

Tamura’s kinetic sculptures utilize electricity and industrial materials, yet they do not serve any productive means. There is an ironic anti-utilitarianism that underlies his practice, subtly poking fun at contemporary society’s obsession with productivity and efficiency. In fact, his works do not even present a clear artistic purpose, thus subverting the viewer’s expectations of what art should “do” or “mean.” As indicated by the exhibition’s title, Tamura refuses to define specific intentions behind his works. Instead, he encourages the viewer interact with them instinctively and pay attention to their own honest reactions. We welcome you to enter Tamura’s whimsical world, where the natural and mechanical collide to form a nonsensical yet captivating phenomenon.

Press Release : Courtesy of MAKI Gallery