A Moment of Silence - automaton by Al Conquergood

Check out this automaton by artist Alan Conquergood‎. In the scene, a woman is about to take the head off of a chicken, presumably for a meal. All around, a flock of chickens peck away at the ground happily. The woman carefully aligns the axe, then brings it down suddenly. The chicken's head has vanished and the others suddenly notice that something has happened. The black rooster turns in the direction of the incident. Thankfully, once the deed is done, the chicken's head soon reappears and the chickens resume eating.

See more automata by Alan Conquergood on his web site.

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Automaton of feasting raccoons by Al Conquergood

The Lee Valley woodworking newsletter this month features the automaton art of Al Conquergood of Etobicoke, Ontario. Here is one of his automata titled, Urban Terrorists. The miniature book is an especially nice touch!

From the video description:

This piece features two raccoons, Boris and Ursula fine dining in a local galvanized garbage can, the norm before modern recycle bins. They each turn their heads, move their eyes, open their mouths, waggle their tongues and move their arms and wag their tails. Boris waves a rotting grape around excitedly and clutches a wiggling fish protectively in his hand and hiding it from Ursula who seems a little more casual about dining. Occasionally a mouse "lounging" on a piece of fresh cheese rises to the can's brim to survey the neighborhood. Dinner is served amongst a wide variety of garbage including banana peels, decaying grapes, bottles, rancid tomatoes, a pop can, bones, rotting apples, a broken gear, washers and a discarded instructional book on building automata.

Here is where you can see more automata by Al Conquergood.

[ Thanks Charles and John! ]

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