Nemo Gould is an artist who spends most of his time making sculptures made entirely out of found materials. His latest creation is a giant minotaur robot (97″ x 60″ x 42″) and is composed of parts from a “Radio cabinet, meat slicer, vacuum cleaners, bull horns, chair and table parts, motors, LEDs, refrigerator parts, belt wheels, milliamp meter, shoe trees, springs, cable, pulleys, misc aluminum scrap”.
The Minotaur
There are three kinds of robots that I can get behind. 1) Robots that are saving the world 2) Robots that can (potentially) destroy the world and 3) Robots that do next to nothing. The Minotaur falls into the third category. There is something hypnotic and comforting in the predictability of their movements in an otherwise uncertain and confusing world. You know the kinds of robots I’m talking about. They can be as simple as the “Drinking Bird” and as complex as those metallic exoskeletons covered in plush that scare your children at Chuck-E-Cheese and who “perform” annoying little country tunes every hour on the hour – without pay.
The minotaur looks charmingly silly and moves likes an arthritic ridden Tree Ent. It looks like what might’ve happened if the Beast from Beauty And The Beast fell in love with the cabinet and the pool table instead of that lowly human Belle.
Little Man Pulling The Strings
This is my favorite part of this great and wondrous robot. There is a little robot, inside the robot, turning a crank to operate it. I love this idea. It’s how I imagine all of the technologies around me to function. The sound of an incoming fax is the sound of an over-worked little robot inside the fax machine, straining to convert intangible data into ink on paper. This is why I always leave crumbs next to my devices (not because I’m untidy – or lazy).
Thank you, Nemo Gould, for making my day. Check out his website here to see his latest pieces.
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