Glowing Dinosaursby Firoiu Dan Nicolae Reserve a copy
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Part two

The exhibition

From one wall to a whole city, with eight glowing animatronic dinosaurs.

For galleries, museums, science centres, festivals and cities

The exhibition

The works leave the page and grow to the size of the place that shows them, up to the true size of the animals themselves.

Each of the 101 dinosaurs has three plates, so the series holds 303 works, and every showing is chosen afresh for its space. The book comes with it: shown beside the works, launched at the opening and signed by the artist.

A wallA gallery, as it isNine to sixteen works, hung in a morning A room100 to 200 m²Salon walls round one great lightbox A hall400 to 900 m²A walk through 186 million years They moveHalls and festivalsEight fluorescent animatronic dinosaurs A cityA municipality and its sponsorsDinosaurs as large as buildings, lit after dark
How the exhibition works

The book leaves the page

Glowing Dinosaurs is made to be shown as well as read. The same plates that fill the book can be printed large, hung, lit and built into an exhibition, and the exhibition grows with the place that shows it. A gallery can take a single wall. A museum, a science centre or a festival can take a room or a hall. A town can take its streets. In every case the book comes too: shown beside the works, launched at the opening and signed by the artist.

The series is large enough to change. Each of the 101 dinosaurs has three plates, so there are 303 works to choose from, and every showing is chosen afresh for its space, its season and its public. A venue can renew the selection during a long run, or the exhibition can travel from city to city with a different set of animals in each.

How the works are made

The works are printed on wood or on acrylic under a layer of glass, signed, numbered and certified, and hung without frames on hidden rails. For the darker rooms there are lightboxes of three by three and six by three metres, which already exist, and prints of up to five by five metres can be produced today. Other formats, such as prints at the animals’ true length, works on buildings and projection mapping, are proposals, developed with each venue and costed with a maker before they are promised.

A walk through deep time

Dinosaurs bring something the earlier exhibitions of the series did not have: time itself. In a hall, the visit can follow the age of the dinosaurs, one period to a zone. It opens in the warm light of the Triassic with the first small dinosaurs, passes into the Jurassic giants, enters the Cretaceous with its hunters, raptors, horns and armour, and ends in a dark room at the end of the age, 66 million years ago.

The animals are also bigger than anything in the deep sea or under a leaf. The book’s field notes give their lengths, from Velociraptor at about 1.8 metres to Diplodocus at about 26, so in a large hall a single print can stretch the full length of a wall and a visitor can walk beside an animal at its true size.

Who does what

The artist and his team bring the works, the selection, the hang, the wall texts and captions, and for a hall the lighting and the build, with the book on a reading table. They also bring material for the venue’s public: pictures and texts for the invitation, the press and the website. The venue brings the space and its own communication. With a city, the municipality brings the buildings, the permissions and the route, and sponsors fund production in return for their presence throughout.

The pages that follow show each scale in turn, with visualisations that are proposals, not photographs of finished works.

Scale 1 of 4

One wall

In a gallery, as it is

The smallest exhibition needs nothing built and nothing darkened: a group of works, the gallery’s own lights, and a morning to hang them. The works are sold from the wall and replaced from the series.

The works
Nine: one at 100 cm in the centre and eight at 60 cm, two above two on either side
Made
Printed on wood or acrylic, under a layer of glass; signed, numbered and certified
The wall
Four metres of hanging, centred at eye level, 1.55 m
To hang
Half a day, with two people

Scale 2 of 4

A room

An exhibition of 100 or 200 square metres

With a room of its own, the series becomes an exhibition: a route, a change of light, and dinosaurs at many times the size of the page. The room is dimmed, not dark. A great lightbox glows on the far wall and draws the visitor across; the prints on the other walls are each lit by a spot.

45works in 100 m²
90works in 200 m²
6 × 3 mthe great lightbox
1reading table with the book

Scale 3 of 4

A hall

A walk through deep time, in 400 or 900 square metres

In a hall, the visit follows the age of the dinosaurs, one period to a zone and each a little darker than the last, from the first small hunters to the very end.

  1. 1
    The Triassic Small Beginnings: salon walls in warm light, at the size of the first dinosaurs
  2. 2
    The Jurassic The giants: a Diplodocus printed at its full length along the long wall
  3. 3
    The Cretaceous Hunters, raptors, horns and armour: lightboxes and large works
  4. 4
    The end A dark room: a print of 5 × 5 m, lightboxes either side, a work glowing on the floor
  5. 5
    The book A reading table
  6. 6 · 7
    Entrance and exit In at one door, out at another
2 1 3 4 5 6 7
A proposal for a hall of 30 × 30 m. Redrawn for the real hall, its power and its escape routes.

At their true size

On the page, every animal stands beside a person 1.8 m tall. In a hall, the prints can be made at the animals’ real length. Here they stand together, drawn to one scale, with you at the end of the line. Swipe to see them all.

Diplodocus26 mSpinosaurus14.5 mTyrannosaurus12 mTriceratops9 mStegosaurus9 mDeinonychus3.4 mHerrerasaurus3 mVelociraptor1.8 mYou1.8 m

Lengths from the book’s field notes. Life-size prints are a proposal; prints of up to 5 × 5 m can be made today.

A visualisation, not a photograph. Each animal five to ten metres across.

Scale 4 of 4

A city

Twenty-four buildings, one walk, by day and by night

The largest exhibition has no walls of its own. Twenty-four dinosaurs, cut to their outline and five to ten metres across, are fixed to twenty-four buildings across a town, and people walk from one to the next. By day it is the scale that stops people; after dark, lamps bring up the colours, or a projector makes the animal seem to breathe on the wall.

To the town

  • A free event in the open air, for every resident
  • A reason to walk the town, and to come from elsewhere
  • A subject for schools: a class can follow the trail
  • Pictures that travel: every building becomes a photograph

To a sponsor

  • Its name beside the largest works in the city
  • A season of presence, on the trail map and at each stop
  • Evenings and guided walks for its own guests

What we bring

  • The works, ready to hang: printed on wood or acrylic under glass, signed, numbered and certified
  • The exhibition itself: the selection, the hang, wall texts and captions, and for a hall the lighting and the build
  • Eight animatronic dinosaurs: fluorescent, glowing under ultraviolet light, for the dark room or a show of their own
  • The opening: the artist present, and the book to show beside the works
  • Material for your public: pictures and texts for the invitation, the press and your website

Ways of working

  • With a gallery: on consignment, as a solo or group show, or on a fair stand
  • With a museum or science centre: as a produced exhibition for a season, which can tour
  • With a city: as a public project with the municipality and its sponsors, with an indoor exhibition and the book alongside
  • With a dinosaur show: the artist’s agency has toured Dino Planet and curated Living Dinosaurs

The formats

FormatStatus
Print on wood or acrylic, 60 or 100 cmCan be made
Salon wallCan be made
Lightbox, 3 × 3 m and 6 × 3 mExists
Dark roomExists
Eight fluorescent animatronic dinosaursExist
Print of up to 5 × 5 mCan be made
Print at the animal’s true lengthProposal
Floor piece, hanging cut-outsProposal
On a building, light at night, projection mappingProposal

Proposals are developed with each venue and costed with a maker before they are promised. The visualisations show proposals, not finished works.

Bring the exhibition to your venue

For galleries, museums, science centres, festivals and cities

Bring the age of dinosaurs to your visitors

A touring exhibition at four scales: one wall, a room of 100 to 200 m², a hall of 400 to 900 m², or buildings across a whole city, with eight glowing animatronic dinosaurs that move. Designed, built and hung by the artist’s team, who have toured exhibitions seen by more than 12 million visitors.

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