Finger Cots Modeled on Ancient Haniwa Burial Figures

This is a set of silicone finger cots, the small cones used for grip while handling paper, shaped and colored to resemble haniwa, the clay figures placed around burial mounds during Japan's Kofun period. They function as ordinary thimble-like tools, worn on the thumb and index finger for traction, but their rounded forms and simplified faces turn each one into a tiny reproduction of a museum artifact. They exist for a task that's usually invisible, the repetitive motion of counting or sorting paper, replacing a piece of plain rubber with something that carries its own historical reference. By shrinking an archaeological object down to fit on a fingertip, it places something ancient and ceremonial into a completely mundane, repetitive context. What gives it presence is the contrast between utility and artifact. It performs a narrow clerical function, but does so wearing the face of an object originally meant for the dead.