Tetsumi Kudō filled cages and aquariums with vignettes that investigate contemporary themes pervading the human experience, including technology, social cohesion, human identity, colonialism, and environmentalism. While Kudō worked in the spirit of the avant-garde that flourished in Japan in the late 1950s, the artist never officially identified with any one movement. Critiquing capitalism and political conformity in Japan, his diverse body of work ranged from painting to performance to sculpture, often incorporating found objects to suggest that social values had become as interchangeable as consumer goods.

–Huy Ha, from the Glenstone Field Guide