Mount Bull

In 2005 Someya created his first successful work, Praying for Rain, a three-dimensional sculpture of a cow almost entirely covered with variously colored lines and circles, leaves, clouds, and raindrops; only the animal’s lower legs are undecorated pieces of old wood. This work was commissioned to recall Praying for Rain but the back of the eponymous animal is shaped like Mount Fuji, with its red peak relating to the crimson “circle of the sun” on Japan’s national flag. Decorating this fantasy beast is an array of Japanese cultural motifs from past to present as well as elements that relate to California—for instance, Mount Whitney and the state’s official “Bear Flag.” Japanese pine trees spring from a Route 66 sign.