"Since 2000 I have been working on the development of sculptures with expressive motion as a starting point."
Real size flying crow
Following the realization of the sculpture of three small flying crows, the Brussels artist Hans op de Beeck asked me to develop a real size flying crow using the same mechanism for generating its motions. From today onward this sculpture is shown at his large solo exhibition in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
The crow spanning about 80 cm from one wing tip to the other was designed by his studio and was 3D printed in five segments. With respect to the small crows I had to completely redesign the joints between the segments as they cannot simply be scaled. Here you see the connection of the two wing segments by an axle with two slider bearings.
This is the production of the crank for driving the motion of the wings, with three bronze slider bearings and multiple rods for aligning the stainless steel parts during assembly.
Here the crank has been installed within the frame and connected to the stepper motor by a tooth belt.
For the connections of the vertical rods to the wings I implemented these ball joints which I gave a nice tapered shape in the lathe.
Finally the complete crow was assembled and.....
...ready to make it's first flight.
In the studio of Hans the crow obtained the characteristic 'Op de Beeck-gray' color and was installed on a nice cylindrical pedestal. All set for its first exhibition at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.