The Treat: India Donaldson

0:00Welcome to The Treat. I'm Elvis Mitchell. Writer-director India Donaldson's 2024 film Good One moves from the demands of a camping trip to the rigors of emotional transition. For her treat, her encounter with a sculpture that placed her in a new state. My name is India Donaldson and this is The Treat.

0:27Maybe 10 years ago, I saw this artwork by the Japanese artist Shimabuku.

0:45It's a pedestal with a TV on it, a video. And in front of the TV is a collection of handmade ceramic pots that are sort of connected on a rope, sort of like a string of ceramic pots, like a large necklace almost. and in the video shows the artist himself in Italy on a small boat being taken out to sea and basically he's put this device that he's made, these pots on the rope, into the ocean and one by one he takes the pots out and looks inside.

1:37And he gets towards the end. It might even be the last pot, and there's an octopus inside. And it's like unbridled joy and excitement when he finds this octopus. Yeah! Yeah! Ah! Ah! Oh! The story behind it, and this is very much characteristic of his art practice in general and his investigations, but the town that he's from in Japan uses this method of catching octopi in ceramic pots. They're drawn to enclosed spaces, so it's this kind of gentle way of drawing them in. And I think in the region in Italy he is in this video, this wasn't in practice at the time, but it was sort of historically the way that they caught octopi.

2:39So he made these pots and basically tried out this method. Vittoria, vero! Ciao! Vittoria, octopas! Vittoria! Hey! This artwork, this video, just lodged itself into my brain, and I think about it often because it elevates just this simple practice to art and narrative. It tells the story, you know, his own story as an artist, of looking into it, and then this larger kind of historical story, but it's just, it has a sense of humor. It's so delicate, it's so simple, but it feels profound. I'd like to be under the sea In an octopus's garden in the shade He'd let us in The Power of the Work, Catching Octopus with Self-Made Ceramic Pots by the artist Shimabuku on writer-director India Donaldson.

3:49The Treat is produced by Rebecca Mooney and mixed by Katie Gilchrist. Go with the flow. I'm Elvis Mitchell with The Treat. I'd like to be under the sea In an octopus's garden in the shade We would be warm below the storm In our little hideaway beneath the waves Resting our heads on the seabed In an octopus's garden near a cave We would sing and dance around Because we know we can't be found I'd like to be What's up, L.A.? Want to hit L.A.'s best live events? for free? Live now in the KCRW app. It's a dedicated tab for ticket giveaways. We're releasing new giveaways every day. And now you've got one tap entry to giveaways for concerts, festivals, talks, and more.

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