breathing blossoming skeleton

(I wish I could remember where I was pointed to this thing so I could h/t them: sorry.)

I have been obsessed for a few days with U-Ram Choe's Guardian of the Hole, a breathing, blossoming skeleton at the Asia Society in NYC, where I somehow do not live. Normally I'm annoyed by the backstories for art pieces, and this breathing skeleton sprouting winged creatures doesn't need one. But I love his idea of a race of seal-like creatures who guarded the hole between universes and kept them open, giving birth to tiny new guardian-spores whenever it sensed a new hole.

In this story, the holes all closed up long ago, and the guardians died. But new spores sprouting from this skeleton mean new holes opening somewhere.

What keeps bringing me back I think is that I'm trying to figure out what makes the piece feel so organic--what it is exactly about the tidal breathing, for example, that seems live. If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.