Big Hair
Wood, Brass, Clockwork, Paint
17” x 15” x 13”
Technically a music box, Big Hair is an outlandish variation on the dancer-on-a-base musical box convention. Here, the customary ballerina poise is exchanged for an abundant and enthusiastic beehive diva, demi-pointe giving way to mambo rhythm and a happy rumpus.
Unlike most of my work in automata, the mechanism in this piece is driven directly by the crank, making the observer somehow more complicit with the music, the dancer, and the ensuing commotion. The simple musical phrase emerges from a mechanized variation on the African kalimba.
I imagine this is the sort of musical box that might appear in the story of Pinocchio had Gepetto been Cuban.
Video
Tin Whisper