Tomio Miki exhibited his work as part of a group of avant-garde, politically active artists in Tokyo in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He settled in 1963 on the human ear as his primary sculptural subject and remained focused on ears for the next several years, often depicting them individually and on a giant scale, as represented by his work at Storm King. He sometimes combined ears with other elements, such as spoons or colored lights, or made series of them set in rows or in boxes. Miki mused about his choice of the ear, saying that it originated in an “experience in a train, when, for no reason, I suddenly felt myself surrounded by hundreds of ears trying to assault me. This personal episode, however, wouldn’t be any precise answer to why I make ears. I can hardly say I chose the ear. More precisely, isn’t it that the ear chose me?”