Shizuka Okada uses ceramic as material for her sculptures, which have humorous motifs of animals, plants and mysterious creatures. Animated by the application of unabashed colors, the cats, birds and animals in cowboy outfits seem to almost start moving. In UTOPIA (2010), houses, enigmatic plants, funny monkeys and other animals were scattered around on the 4m-squared pedestal. Even vessels have lost functional meanings and joined these animals. Okada’s work often embraces the combinations of unexpected elements. Pineapple Boy (2012) is a pineapple with human body and lying, with an octopus on its lap. In Shell on Bear (2011), a shell is stuck on the face of a bear covering its eyes and other parts completely. Okada states that these motifs grow out of associations of miscellaneous forms and images that she sees is daily life with her own imagination, when the associations find the reasons. The combinations, as well as the forms and the materiality, reveals the uncommon intimacy with primitive energies.

Concept
Also used as the title of the show, For Anything / For Nothing is similar to Shell on Bear, but this time there are 2 bears hiding each other’s face with shells. Okada describes the works for the show as follows;

The show mainly focuses on the portraits of people who are just daydreaming and will never act for the change, do not have any solutions for the confusion brought by the change, and are just standing on the watchtower. But the daydreaming, that is having irresponsible hopes, can be a big foundation that supports the mentality of us living in the time of confusion and contradiction.

This exhibition features about 30 pieces of her new sculptures that are humorous as well as reflective.