These are two other creations by Keita Takahashi. The hippo is a tissue box holder, which plays on the word hippo in Japanese, which if I understand correctly sounds like the word for a tissue box holder. The whimsy of the piece comes through clearly even just in the expression on the hippo itself (let alone the colossal size).

My favorite though is the goat planter. While initially it looks like what one might call a “rather normal looking goat shaped planter”, the humor arises once you water the plant. The excess water from the planter drains through the goats udder onto the floor.

Perhaps its my over-active imagination, but this idea of a whimsical artistic creation that achieves humor through interaction seems like a good way of describing his theme both in his physical art and his video game. Whatever the case, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Click on the image above to watch Keita Takahashi’s talk at GDC, where he discusses these art pieces and his path to creating Katamari Damacy (he mentions his art about 40 minutes in).