Installed on the 14 October 2025, Ocean Gaia is a monumental underwater sculpture resting 5m beneath the surface off the island of Tokunoshima, Japan. Weighing over 45 tons and spanning 5.5 metres in width, the work features a serene large-scale portrait of the renowned Japanese model Kiko Mizuhara. It is the first underwater sculpture ever installed in Japan.
Set close to shore and embedded within the fringing reef, the sculpture is perforated with openings around its edges to invite marine life inside, transforming it into both artwork and habitat. Its gently swirling contours echo the intricate sand circles crafted by the Japanese white-spotted pufferfish (Torquigener albomaculosus), native to these waters and the rising peaks and valleys of the nearby mountain range.
Tokunoshima, known for its healthy lifestyle, high birthrate, and remarkable number of centenarians, forms a fitting setting. Along its spine, a mountain range rises in the silhouette of a pregnant woman. Ocean Gaia stands as both a symbol of renewal and a gesture toward reconnection between people, the sea, and the continuity of life itself.
In recent years, many of Japan’s younger generations have left the islands for larger cities. This new work seeks to inspire renewed cultural interest and deeper connection among local youth — a new gateway to the sea.
Ocean Gaia envisions the sea as a vast maternal force that breathes, renews, and heals. Drawing from the myth of Gaia, the primordial mother, the work reflects on the ocean as origin and consciousness, the source from which all life emerged. It speaks to interconnection and reverence, a reminder that the ocean is not apart from us, but an entity on which we are entirely dependent.
It is hoped that when visited, the piece evokes a deep, instinctive memory of being held within water — a quiet meditation on creation, fertility and the ocean as the original womb of life.
