Spooner Virtual Exhibition now Open

We are delighted to announce the launch of Paul Spooner’s Virtual Exhibition today.

Paul Spooner was 60 earlier this year, and we are celebrating with this new exhibition of pieces he has made during the year.

During your visit you will see videos, photos and drawings of the pieces.  You can also eavesdrop on some ‘behind the scenes’ discussions and look through Paul’s sketchbook drawings of the works.  The exhibition includes a very special new ‘Centennial’ edition of Manet’s Olympia.

We hope you enjoy your visit.

Enter it here.

‘Hungry for Love’ in Chicago

Our USA touring exhibition opened at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry earlier this month.

This Paul Spooner piece, ‘Hungry for Love’ from the Fourteen Ball Toy collection is the most complicated piece in the show, as you can see from Paul’s original sketch.  The waitress walks. The cart rolls. The sailor moves his arms, head and even throat, and the tray pops up at the end, to uncover two very wobbly jellies.

Each piece in this exhibition is labelled with it’s own Haiku. Here is the one for this piece:

Motion for its own
Delight. An automaton
Must not mean, but be.

Exhibition continues until March 2009.

New Kinetica Exhibition - London

Kinetica have a new exhibition featuring 10 UK and International artists who are experimenting with evolution, hybridisation and the infiltration of technology. The artworks vivify inanimate materials with energatic vitality and are a comment on the relationship between our technologically enhanced society and the natural world.  UK artists include Tim Lewis, Tom Wilkinson and Jim Bond.

Creatures Great and Small - which opens at the ROVE Gallery, 33 – 34 Hoxton
Square London N1 6NN until 19th October 2008.

If you are in the area, it may also be worth looking at the work of young kinetic artist Clara Clark (Mark Tanner Sculpture Award winner 2007/8) in her exhibition ‘Re-Creation’ at the Standpoint Gallery which is in Coronet Street, around the corner from Hoxton Square until 18th October.  One exhibit  ’Mechanical Sea’  with it’s layers of fabric, and partially concealed wooden mechanics show Clark’s continuing exploration of recreating the appearance of water.

Tinkering with PIE

Over the past 10 years we have worked regularly with Mike Petrich and Karen Wilkinson from the Exploratorium, in San Francisco.  Read more

Springs Sprockets & Pulleys

Springs Sprockets & Pulleys: The Mechanical Sculptures of Steve Gerberich, Waterloo Center, Iowa, USA until January 2009.

We are great fans of Steve Gerberich and his work, so if you are in Iowa before the end of the year a visit to this exhibition is highly recommended.
There is also a great program of workshops and talks.
Press a button or crank a wheel and Steve Gerberich’s sculptures come to life. A flock of decoy geese overhead flap open suitcase wings. A wooden cow with hooves clad in high-top sneakers is milked endlessly by an over-enterprising farmer….
Constructed from old machine parts, kitchen utensils, pieces of furniture, lighting fixtures, medical supplies, toys and carnival figurines, Gerberich’s work offers viewers a unique way to interact with contemporary sculpture, explore the principles of simple mechanical motion or simply ponder the remarkable inventiveness of art.

PhantasieMechanik ends at Phaeno

This week sees the final closing of a very popular show.
Over 100,000 visitors have enjoyed the exhibition at phaeno in Germany,
which featured the work of 10 CMT artists as well as Arthur Ganson, Norman Tuck and Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre. Click here for images of the show.
Our exhibits will now travel to Spain for a new exhibition later this year.

Weird and Wonderful Gadgets and Inventions

British Library
Until November 10th 2008.

Would-be inventors will be inspired by Maurice Collins’ collection of eccentric contraptions, over 50 of which are currently on display at the British Library in London.
The exhibits include this early food processor, a mechanical page turner, a clockwork burglar alarm and even an early version of a sat-nav device.
Maurice is giving a talk on September 16th at 18.00hrs.
Click here to book. (free)

CMT Down Under!

Our first ever exhibition in Australia will open on Saturday 15th March at the Western Australia Museum in Perth.

Mechanics Alive!! is being shown as part of the UNIMA 2008 World Puppetry Festival to be held in Perth 2nd to 12th April - so plenty of reasons (apart from fantastic weather) to make a trip to Perth if you can.

The word on the ground (from our intrepid installation team) is that the venue is fantastic, local interest is growing daily (we think they will particularly enjoy Paul Spooner’s Hopping Jackal - jumping over The Ashes - above) and that there is a pioneering colour scheme for the exhibition!
Mechanics Alive!! continues in Perth until May 11th 2008.

Mechanics Alive!! Exhibition to Oakham School

Our Mechanics Alive!! exhibition is making a brief appearance (for two school weeks) at Oakham School Smallbone Library Foyer, in Rutland, Leceistershire, before heading off on tour to Australia for a year. Read more

PhantasieMechanik at phaeno

Opening on Saturday 23rd February at the spectacular phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, this exhibition promises to be one of the best kinetic sculpture exhibitions in recent years. Read more