Stunning Animal Sculptures Made of Recycled Tire

These Stunning Animal Sculptures are created by Korean artist Yong Ho Ji with layers of used tire strips bound together by synthetic resins on supporting frames of steel, wood, or Styrofoam. Having grown up at the base of a large mountain in Korea, Ji adopted tires as his signature material based on a childhood memory of the spare wheel on his family’s jeep, vital in the rural landscape where his grandmother raised cattle and other livestock. This early exposure to both domesticated and wild animals informed his desire to make art about humanity’s responsibility to nature, via subject matter as well as recycled materials.

1. Lion

2. Bear

The laborious process can take up to three months to complete. First, the artist welds together iron “bones” around which he wraps wood planks and potting soil before applying the tires. He then casts dead animals. He sculpts his initial forms out of wire and clay, builds plaster molds and, finally, makes resin forms. [source]

3. Buffalo