Good News: Momo's Creator Says He Destroyed the Statue

By Mark Pygas

Mar. Five 2019, Updated 1:fifty eight p.m. ET

For the previous couple of weeks, the "Momo Challenge" has been dominating news headlines and inflicting concern to folks around the international. But in keeping with charities and truth checkers, it's all one big hoax. Many mavens have said that the virality of Momo, led to by means of sensationalism from parents, the media, and in some cases, police, has brought about way more harm than the challenge itself, which isn't recognized to have brought about any hurt to kids. 

Fact-checking web page Snopes came upon that the image of Momo incessantly associated with stories is actually a photo of a sculpture by means of Japanese special-effects company Link Factory. The sculpture used to be created by way of the Japanese artist Keisuka Aiso in 2016. 

But Keisuka is not more than pleased with the recent attention his sculpture has gotten. Keisuka instructed The Sun that he feels “responsible” for terrifying youngsters after his work was hijacked. And he wanted to reassure oldsters and youngsters that Momo has been destroyed. 

"It doesn’t exist anymore, it was never meant to last," he mentioned. "It was rotten and I threw it away. The children can be reassured Momo is dead — she doesn’t exist and the curse is gone."

The style, made out of rubber and oils, used to be thrown away last year, with only the eyes left to be reused in a long term venture. 

Keisuka says that despite the fact that he is disillusioned through the hoax, he is glad his paintings has been noticed around the international. 

“I've blended feels about the individuals who have completed this," he said. "On one hand they've caused me nothing however bother, however on the different hand as an artist I have a bit of sense of appreciation that my art piece has been observed across the global."

He continued, "I guess I should be thankful in that sense. I created this art work 3 years ago and at the time when it was exhibited at the gallery it didn't receive a lot attention, so at the time I was very dissatisfied." 

Before the viral hoax, Keisuka's statue was known as "Mother Bird" and Keisuka based her off a Japanese ghost story in which a woman passed away during childbirth only to end up haunting the surrounding area as a bird monster. 

In 2016, alternative art space The Vanilla Gallery featured Mother Bird as part of an exhibition on Japanese ghost stories. The gallery usually doesn't let visitors take photographs, but Mother Bird attracted plenty of attention and photographs quickly made it online. 

Over the years, Mother Bird somehow transformed into Momo, with the challenge existing for years before the recent news. Though no evidence has been found to link the challenge with any harm.  

"The subject has generated rumours that during themselves may also be cause for fear amongst kids," David Mikkelson of Snopes wrote.  

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