Wu's ambitions weren't so lofty three years ago when he started tearing out tiny pieces of paper and folding them into tiny squares at the York prison, which INS pays $45 a day to house and feed men and women like Wu.

He just wanted to kill time. He needed an outlet to soothe the pain caused by his separation from his wife and son. Both are now living with relatives in China's Fujian province.

Using whatever he could find in jail - from toilet paper to containers of noodle soups, Wu started to craft Chinese figures in the century-old tradition of paper folding. The art was remarkable not only for its intricacy but also for the conditions under which it was made, observers say.

There were teapots made of carefullyrolled pieces of legal paper. Toilet tissue dyed with tea and colored with magic markers produced breathtaking dragons, owls, and pagodas.

In all, Wu and his fellow Chinese illegal aliens crafted more than 10,000 sculptures - each composed of pieces of magazine paper torn out by hand, folded into little triangles, and fitted into place on a body of papier-mch toilet tissue.

As time went by, Wu experimented, adding to Chinese symbols layers of the America he saw or imagined from prison. He crafted eagles that supporters called "freedom birds" to express his thwarted hopes. And a Statue of Liberty in toilet paper.

"The thought that it was done in prison, using the pages of glossy American magazines, makes it even more powerful," says Robert Orsi, a professor of religion at