“Don’t poke the Namazu”
2026
AMP Gallery
Clay, Cement, Denim, Arimatsu fabric
Originating from Japan’s Edo period (17th - 19th Century), it was once believed that a giant Catfish (called Namazu in Japanese) resided underneath the Japanese archipelago, and whenever the Catfish thrashed and writhed it would cause the Earth to shake. Over time this belief amalgamated into a superstition where it was believed that a sudden change in a Catfish’s behaviour signalled the imminent arrival of an Earthquake. The Catfish in ‘Don’t poke the Namazu’ is stiff and rigid, covered in cement like the earth we walk on. It references our declining reliance on Nature’s cues, and with the prediction of a megaquake hitting Japan’s Pacific Coast within the next 30 years, perhaps there could be solace in revisiting our ancestral perspectives on our natural surroundings.