PRESS RELEASE     A MEETING OF BEASTS     

A Meeting of Beasts:  The Kinetic Sculpture of Christiaan Zwanikken 

at the American Museum of Natural History


New York City, November 9-14, 2011


They have not stopped.  They have not stopped chirping, clicking, and carrying on.  They have not stopped ever since we returned from New York City.  Every morning, before I have even turned them on, they demand to return.  


I have no choice.  I am outnumbered.


I am so pleased to announce my return to New York, accompanied by a collection of my kinetic sculptures.  The exhibit is in mutual support of Convento, the new award-winning documentary about my family and I from filmmaker Jarred Alterman, screening in the Margaret Meade Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.  There is no more suitable venue than the great halls of that incredible institution.  The entire building is a natural archive.  My work is, too, a record, simply preserved in a different way.  The installation will be in the lobby of the Grand Gallery for the duration of the Margaret Meade Film Festival, November 9-14, 2011.  


My mechanoids are very excited to see the dinosaurs.  Why shouldn’t they be?  The two are biological brethren, kept apart by so much time.  The connective tissue of both may have long ago disintegrated, but they will all stand together for the first time, one in the shadow of the other.  My sculptures are interactive art, encouraging all to look into the eyes that are most definitely looking back.  The enormous reptiles, however, will be doing all the looking.  Such teeth demand respectful distance.  Each viewer will have the ability to walk into and be surrounded by near tangible evolution, simultaneously occupying a mark on its timeline.        


I hope you are able to attend this meshing of sculpture, film, and multi-species mingling. 


November 9-14, 2011

American Museum of Natural History, lobby of the Grand Gallery 

77 St. between Central Park West and Columbus Ave., NY, NY

http://www.amnh.org           


For ticket and festival information, visit: http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2011/films/convento


Please visit:  http://christiaanzwanikken.wordpress.com