Mimicry: Monkey

Akinaga Kunihiro makes clay sculptures, and since 2011 he has focused on creating an inventive and scientific series of black ceramic sculptures that he collectively calls “Mimicry.” The animals depicted in his sculptures are reduced to their skeletons—an attempt to capture the world between life and death—with only subtle decoration inspired by the architectural ornamentation on temples and churches. Nothing is obscured. Too often, he says, “the truth of things gets hidden, ” an issue he would like to avoid. This sculpture shows a Japanese macaque, often called a “snow monkey, ” lifting his arm in an ambiguous gesture.