Jake Tilson – Tsukiji Reimagined

Tsukiji Reimagined is a record of the Tsukiji Fish Market project by the artist Jake Tilson – 2008-2023. A deeply personal and immersive collection of works including: assemblages, micro- architecture, paintings, drawings, flags, audio works, books and dioramas – all reflecting the vast chaotic Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo with its makeshift mercantile architecture – layered with typography and a patina of seafood. The project became an unintentional shrine to Tsukiji when the market moved in 2018.

Japan has seeped slowly into Tilson’s work since his first visit there twenty-nine years ago in 1994 when he returned with a suitcase full of Japanese ironmongery and stationery, some of which has made its way into his Tsukiji artworks. However it wasn’t until 2008 that Jake saw the fish market for the first time and his addiction began, taking 1500 photographs on 35mm film. 

Jake Tilson’s work has been exhibited around the world and is held in many public and private collections including the Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art,  Centres Georges Pompidou, BBC World Service, Chase Manhattan Bank,  Arthur Andersen & Co, The Principal Financial Group, USA and Sir Paul Smith.
In 2009 he collaborated with the Japanese artist Kyoichi Tsuzuki for A Net of Eels, an exhibition at The Wapping Project. A retrospective of his work, Investigations in Cities 1977-1997, was held at the Museo International de Electrografia, Cuenca, in 1997. His audio works have been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, Rena Branston in San Francisco, Roda Sten in Goteborg, the Photographers Gallery in London and at the Venice Architecture Biennale.