Eiko Ishizawa The Great Sleeping Bear

sculpture
190 x 73 x 78 cm
fake fur, rubber, foam, zipper, glass eyes, textile
2007
This work is inspired by the news in Bavaria, 2006- the news was about a bear, which escaped from the Italian side of the Alps to the Bavarian side. He was called a problem bear, as he was the first wild bear since 170 years. He evoked huge discussion among people and government whether they should kill or leave him alive. In the end, he was hunted down. I was interested in this tragic story of the bear, as well as the starting point of this tragedy; this bear was generating many different ideas and emotions in people as illusions in reality by just crossing the borderline between countries.

In order to recreate such incident, I made an object with the realistic look of a bear, which modifies sleeping bag functionality. By hiring this connotation of outdoor goods, this work depicts the contradictive relationship between admirations and love of mankind toward wild nature, and the boundaries that we rarely brake.

By having the experience of transitional discoveries like finding a bear, realizing a little human face in his mouth, and recognizing details and shape of this commodity, I attempt to create this work as to be a medium for audiences to generate one’s transitional perceptions and fantasies in reality.