Ryuku Otsuka

Ryuku Otsuka is a visual artist from Japan. His recent work Guardian of the Amazon: Deforestation examines the place of the Amazon rainforest in contemporary discourse and on the Internet. The work was inspired by the YouTube video Guardian of the Amazon , about Laercio Guajajara, the leader of a group of volunteers seeking to protect the rainforest from the destruction caused by loggers. The assemblage of five frames presents images of endangered and rare species in the rainforest and explores the causes of deforestation. The authenticity of the images, drawn mainly from the Internet, cannot be verified. The work depicts the situation of the rainforest while raising questions about truth and the Internet.