Talented sculptor and artist Ryo Shimura, a graduate of the Tokyo University of Art and Design, makes detailed plastic figurines of endangered species, highlighting how species are disappearing from the planet, due to “environmental problems such as deforestation, air pollution, warming…resulting in mass extermination”.

Shimura’s latest creation, “29000→600” represents the loss of hippos in the wild due to loss of habitat and poaching. His slumped-over pandas are particularly poignant, but his Meerkat crayons are tad more upbeat.

However, it does seem a little out of place to use plastic for the disappearing species since plastics, and fossil-fuels from which they are derived, often are a causal factor in stress on the environment and animal species – perhaps the use of a plastic as a medium is intended as an ironic statement.

Visit: http://shimura-ryo.blogspot.com/