Process

Video

Zeitgeist

1996
Assemblage with mummified squirrel and bronze squirrel cast
34 x 24 x 6 inches
Door opens to reveal bronze cast, which opens to reveal a mummified squirrel

Private collection. For sale however through stevebrudniak.com:
Click to purchase or inquire about this artwork 

True Tales of the Curse of the Squirrel Boy Mummy

The squirrel mummy was found as a disturbing surprise in the crawl space under my home. After preserving it with linseed oil, I made a bronze from a plaster cast and hinged it to cover the mummy set into a black velvet impression. The inspiration came of course from the funerary masks and coffins of the Egyptian Pharos. The sarcophagus casing is a modified door from an antique 35mm cinema projector. The documentary film Ulteriaphobia, The Art of Steve Brudniak chronicles some footage of the process.

In 1998, Zeitgeist was sold to a patron who loaned it back to me twice for exhibits. This eccentric man lived alone in a Houston mansion with an amazing collection of artifacts, memorabilia, art and a python that roamed the house at will. With my friend, the artist and herpetologist William Farr along, I returned the sculpture for the last time. When we arrived, he seemed to be having a kind of paranoid episode. Looking out the curtains and visibly nervous, he told us that he thought someone was out to kill him who wanted his estate. William and I both chalked this up to his offbeat nature or some sort of mental illness.

Later, another opportunity arose to display the work but I was unable to get in touch. I tried repeatedly over time and his number was eventually disconnected. I began to worry quite a bit, as I like to keep track of my work. A couple years passed. I knew the family owned a well-known Texas corporation based in a small town and the first number in the directory under his last name got me through to a relative who gave me the number of his parents. (I’m being vague here to protect their privacy). His mother answered but was not very forthcoming. She did, however, tell me—after I explained who I was— that her son had been murdered and that some stranger had presented a one-sentence will and seized the estate. I was shocked and immediately recalled the last time I saw him, realizing the reality of the poor fellow’s paranoia and how odd it was that I had been there at that time. She offered little more information.

At least another year passed when a woman I know approached me at an art exhibit and told me she had seen a sculpture with a squirrel mummy in it and “just knew” that it was mine. I grabbed her by the arm, “What? Where? Who?” She gave me the number of her friend, one Ed Gage, an antique dealer who lived only an hour away and had purchased Zeitgeist for $400 from another dealer. Ed later told me he loved the piece and had no intention of ever selling it, but enjoyed showing it at antique fairs and using it to attract attention and scare customers. He even posted photos on Ebay, hoping to find out what exactly it was or where it came from to no avail. Eventually, he loaned it to me for my Noumenon touring exhibit, hand delivering the work and even helping install it. Ed and I became great friends and even discovered that we had other comrades in common, including someone who owned another piece of mine. We’ve stayed in contact since. The serendipity!

But the story isn’t over: In 2009, Ed had to move from the home he was selling and needed a place to store, “Squirrel Boy” as he calls it. My friend David Quin who had converted a room in his home into a small “museum” of my art was happy to take the work on loan. David has an annual party, which I attended. Upon arriving he took me into the gallery to show me something incredible: Directly across the room from the Zeitgeist were bits of insulation on the floor and just above that were small perforations scored through the wall, from the inside, through which shredded insulation protruded. Baffled, I asked what had happened. Apparently, he told me, a squirrel became trapped in the wall and had attempted to claw its way into the gallery through the plaster before giving up and eventually finding a more appropriate exit. It would appear that the call of the mummy was heard…more to come I’m sure.