Hanging by a thin metal strap, a 67-million-year-old triceratops skull twirls above a coral sculpture, the centerpiece of a new exhibition aiming to make art out of prehistoric fossils.
67 million years ago, it was a triceratops; now it's hung as art. (Photo: AFP)
The "Relics" show at Amsterdam's Art Zoo will display nine works by creative duo Jaap Sinke and Ferry van Tongeren that combine science and art.
The aim is to highlight the aesthetic side of the fossils, usually presented in an educational way in natural history museums, van Tongeren said.
The artists tried to give the fossils "a more monumental form" with "more stature," the 59-year-old said in an interview.
The exhibition also features the bones of a basilosaurus, which roamed the seas up to 40 million years ago, but arranged as a sculpture rather than a traditional skeleton reconstruction.
Natural history museums have a valuable scientific and educational value "but lack a captivating element," said van Tongeren. "And that was the starting point for everything we did."
The artists worked with Zoic, an Italian paleontology company that processes fossils and reconstructs dinosaur skeletons.
Creating the exhibits required "an extraordinary combination of knowledge and different processes," Iacopo Briano, 42, curator of the exhibition and palaeontology expert at Zoic, said.
First comes the "puzzle" of unearthing and reconstructing the bones from a fossil discovery. Then the fragile bones need to be transported so the artists could start their own work - a 10-year process in the case of this exhibit.
This prehistoric show, whose oldest exhibit is a dinosaur vertebra about 150 million years old, is open to the public and runs until November 2026.