Paléontologie Spéculative 1

Collaborator Wanted

Most collectors acquire finished works. This project offers something different: the opportunity to participate in the creation of a major work from its earliest conception through its final realization.

Paléontologie Spéculative #1 is a proposal to create a museum-scale fossil skeleton belonging to a species that never existed.

Together, a small team of artists, craftspeople, and a collaborative patron would imagine an entirely new creature.

The project would unfold over months or years. Specialists from multiple disciplines would be invited to contribute to its realization. Bones might be carved from wood, cast in metal, assembled from stone, ceramic, resin, or other materials chosen specifically for each part of the creature. Each contributor would leave traces of their craft within the larger whole.

The patron would participate throughout the process. Decisions about scale, character, fabrication, exhibition, and documentation would be developed collaboratively. Rather than simply purchasing an artwork, the patron would help shape its existence.

The completed skeleton would stand as evidence of a species that never lived. Equally important would be the process itself: the conversations, discoveries, challenges, and relationships formed while bringing an impossible creature into the world.

Estimated budget: beginning at $1 million.

The final artwork would belong to the patron.