My inspiration for “hi…?" comes from a piece of news about the abandoned animals in Japan's 'No-Go' radioactive area.  The radiation had spread everywhere, and animals that remained were being bombarded with radiation all the time.  Animals cannot express how suffering they are struggling with.

 

The contaminated area is silent.   This sculpture is also silent, but accusatory at the same time.  The giant stuffed gorilla's head is squeezed hard into a limited space, and its body was compressed by the weight of the laminated MDF cube into a kneel-down position.  I made this sculpture to convey animals' suffering and helplessness and penance for human's past conduct. The shape of the laminated MDF cube, with the cutouts that are different from front to back, forces viewers to see what is captured within in a very specific way.  I wanted to create a piece that is at once, funny, disturbing and quirky and a bit of a puzzle that keeps viewers looking to figure it out.