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7-3
An Object of Ambiguous Desire Series

Goldfish, which for Tanaami are strongly tied to wartime memories, originally emerged as a genetic mutation from carp, and have been raised in mass quantities as ornamental fish through various breeding innovations. Tanaami says that in the mid-2000s, when he witnessed high school girls in Shibuya, Tokyo with heavily made up, artificial countenances, he sensed parallels to the goldfish’s human-assisted evolution. To him, the girls became linked to a vision of goldfish swimming through the vast aquarium of the Shibuya streets. In this drawing series, he portrays the quirky and outlandish high schoolers like a new species appearing in an illustrated wildlife guide. Since then, Tanaami has increasingly synthesized goldfish and people in his works, and his exploration of this synthesis continues in various forms.