Scrap metal skeleton sculpture

This scrap-metal skeleton sculpture, "Jibetarian," is on display at the National Art Center in Tokyo — it's a student piece from Tokyo Zokei University. As Tokyobling notes, it has a haunting, moving aspect that I could look at for days:


The term is a pun on the word ji (ground, earth) and vegetarian. I think most of you have seen this kind of work before, but I can't even begin to imagine how the artist balanced this life sized sculpture while crafting it. It is a massive undertaking – to so finely shape a person that it can balance all by itself. I felt moved by the open mouth and stare of skeletal figure, like a post apocalyptic corpse, a Hiroshima meets Pompeii figure, tragic, doomed and beautiful at the same time. Like a corpse withered by an atomic blast, mere moments before collapsing in a smoking pile of bones in a radioactive desert. Art at it's finest, a fruitful composition of idea and execution.

Jibetarian – 芦æ'康吉

(Thanks, Robert)