Incredible Newspaper Sculptures by Hitotsuyama Studio

Japanese artist Chie Hitotsuyama makes a stunning case for recycling with massive, life-like sculptures of animals. The upcycled fauna are created using a unique process, which involves rolling and twisting wet pieces of newspaper together into cohesive and anatomically correct forms of rhinos, monkeys, apes and other inhabitants of the wild. Going the extra mile on execution, careful consideration is given to the colors printed on the newspapers, so they can be used to contextually highlight the expressive and mind boggling realism on display from such a humble and discarded medium.

Her reasoning behind this unorthodox technique is just as philosophical as it is pragmatic:

“When a piece of paper is rolled up, it increases its strength, and by glueing together one by one and side by side I can carefully form contours and curves with each single string. These single strings, collected together, consequently become the surface of an object. And eventually, a shape or a form of an object appears. Newspapers come out everyday and at the same time, are thrown out everyday. This cycle repeats rebirth and death whilst carrying our memories. This, I felt, is so similar to humans who also repeat their own histories and experience the cycles of life and death.My animal sculptures, made from an accumulation of newspapers, might perhaps be portraying ourselves and our lives, on many levels.”

All images courtesy of Chie Hitotsuyama. View more at her home page or visit her on Studio, Studio .