credit Courtesy Michael Rea
Sculptor Michael Rea has a knack for building. But unlike most architects, he draws on an encyclopedic knowledge of geek culture and an eccentric sense of humor for his unique sculptures. Rea’s movie-influenced menagerie includes electronic consoles, time machines and holy artifacts – all fashioned from wood. He even built an eight-foot-tall prosthetic suit, equipped with swords, for physicist Stephen Hawking after seeing Quentin Tarantino’s kung fu-inspired Kill Bill. Click through the gallery to see his geekiest creations. If you want to see them in person, Rea will be showing off his custom-made woodwork at San Francisco’s Fecal Face gallery in October. Left: This grandiose gun, nicknamed Lysistrata, after the classical Greek comedy written in 411 B.C., wows onlookers with its intricate components and larger-than-life dimensions. The installation also comes with a helmet and a flak jacket, both crafted from wood and burlap. Attendees are encouraged to don the protective gear and slip their hand into the machine – sort of like a biomechanical appendage. The sculpture is deliberately designed to restrict movement and freeze the participant. "It’s kind of an experiment about the absurdity of violence," says Rea. "Putting your arm into [the gun] creates a weird, paralyzing bravado."
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
Rea built this oversize computer console, as well as its complementary sculptures, Space Capsule and Space Suit, after repeated viewings of the 1983 film, The Right Stuff. Like most of his projects, he didn’t sketch or draw any plans for his wooden control-room dashboard – Rea just began building. "I just have a knack for it," he says. "As a kid, my models looked like shit. It’s easier for me just to start building [rather than follow blueprints.]"
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
Rea wanted to recreate his own version of The Right Stuff, the 1983 film about the history of early space exploration in the United States, but settled on building props influenced by the film instead. The Space Capsule (left) is an homage to the Mercury mission capsule piloted by American astronaut Gus Grissom. The capsule, called Liberty Bell 7, sank after splashdown in the ocean – a complicated stunt Rea eventually elected not to recreate. "I wanted to sink a capsule in a swimming pool and escape," he says. "But I figured I’d probably die – so I didn’t do it."
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
"I needed a suit to go with the capsule," says Rea, whose trio of work – Space Capsule, Mission Control and Space Suit – pays tribute to The Right Stuff , the ’80s film about NASA’s early days. As with all of his timber-based creations, Rea didn’t consult any technical drawings for his piece. He simply began cutting and fitting pieces together until the final product (left) resembled the aeronautic suits worn by the astronauts in the movie.
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
While tooling around post-college in Chicago, Rea and his friends got the idea to stage pseudo musical performances. After booking a venue, Rea built an entire band’s worth of equipment out of wood. While blaring tunes over a PA system, Rea and friends would "shred" on their wooden guitars. "It worked like quasi-karaoke," Rea says. "Kind of obnoxious, but we did it for free drinks."
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
At first glance, this sculpture, cheekily titled A Prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawking with Japanese Steel, might seem to be mocking the world-renowned theoretical physicist. But Rea, always a fan of Hawking’s appearances on The Simspons and Futurama, decided to build the mecha-robotic body suit to honor the scientist’s achievements. The 300-pound suit stands eight feet tall and is interactive – there’s a hatch in the back wide enough for a willing participant to crawl in through.
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
This is the view of A Prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawking with Japanese Steel from behind.
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
This massive tank is nicknamed the Time Machine, and it functions as a counter-piece to Stephen Hawking’s prosthetic suit. Rea says it represents the conflict between Hawking and noted Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan on time travel. "I often display the two as having a showdown," says Rea, who estimates that the tank weighs in at a little less than 1,000 pounds. Like the body suit, the tank has interior room for a passenger and can be moved backwards, forwards or even sideways by his or her feet. The price tag for the beast is a hefty $16,000, Rea’s most expensive piece to date.
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
Rea was inspired to build a replica of the long-lost, legendary Ark of the Covenant after seeing the coveted artifact in popular films like the Ten Commandments and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Weighing in at 75 pounds, Rea’s holy tablet-holder stands 4 feet tall and measures 6 feet wide. "My design is not biblically correct," says Rea. "My dimensions are probably off … but it looks ark-ish enough."
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
While Rea was living in Madison, Wisconsin, getting his graduate degree in art, his rate of production went through the roof. After hustling to build a multitude of his stage prop-like pieces, he thought it would be funny to create a set of pseudo-power tools. "They’re along the same lines as all of my work – suspension of disbelief and hyperbole." Rea’s collection of elegantly crafted instruments includes a chop-saw, jigsaw, two sanders and a drill. Each piece is comparable in size to its real-life counterpart but are nonoperational.
credit Courtesy Michael Rea
"I wanted to make something that was bitchin’," Rea says of his highly detailed, life-size wooden model of a jet ski. Rea decided to create a subversive version of a popular pastime as commentary on human leisure activities and "the illusion of the American dream." He spent a summer building the 12-foot-long watercraft vehicle by constructing a large wood rib, filling it with pink foam and then sculpting large planks of wood around the body.
