In a new series of works, Ikuko Iwamoto explores environmental concerns. Growing up near the seaside in Japan, on a diet of mainly pescatarian food, these sculptures arose from Ikuko’s serious concerns about the damage caused by high sea bottom trawling which Japanese experts are calling for an end to, due to irreparable damage to vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems.

Ikuko comments,"These fish are the ghosts of the sea representing those whose homes have been destroyed by fishing practices such as bottom trawling, those who have been captured for nothing because they were not the type for the market and those which have been killed by plastic waste."

Ikuko's skill and imagination have come together in this poignant work that harks back to her roots in Japan where she trained under ceramic master Asuka Tsuboi, one of the pioneering women potters to emerge in Japan in the 1970s, before coming to London encouraged by Tsuboi to study at Camberwell and the RCA. This work is a culmination of everything we love about Ikuko’s work. She creates work with sensitivity, wit, patience, incredible craftsmanship and attention to detail.