Quarantine Bar and other Steampunk Art and Design emerge amid Covid-19 isolation. ModVic artist, Bruce Rosenbaum, finds time to bring personal projects to life and express his creativity during uncertain times
Palmer, MA – With the last 8 months having been among the most challenging of our lifetimes, and with some of ModVic’s larger client projects temporarily paused, Bruce has turned his attention to Steampunk Wonderland home improvements and using some of his existing antiques and architectural objects inventory.
While staying in-step with the times, the Quarantine Bar also pays homage to the long running American tradition of repurposing antique furniture into stylish wet bars – for home or office. Central to this project was an antique Rudd Water Heater with intricate trim and details. Initially one large piece, the halves were separated and repositioned apart from one another. In between, an 1800’s Victorian fireplace insert has been refashioned as a cooler for beers and chilled cans and bottles.
The biggest challenge proved to be the upside-down, gravity and vacuum fed liquor bottle dispensers. This specialized valve technology was an elegant solution, combining whimsical form with practical function. “Explosion proof lights” designed to completely eliminate sparks for factory floor safety, have been re-imagined as our illuminated, robot bartenders.
Built in shelves hold “laboratory” glasses and a rocket shaped cocktail shaker on one side and a wine rack on the other.
The antique industrial manufacturing equipment that suspends the elongated, hi-boy table was from KwikPrint in the early 1900’s and had been used to apply gold leaf lettering to personalize luggage and steamer trunks of the day.
The tabletop is a professionally finished live edge wood panel and is easy to walk around and share libations from an appropriate social distance.
How do you present a self-portrait when the artist is actually the “Steampunk Guru”, as dubbed by the Wall Street Journal?
Meet the Humachine “Bruce”. As he sits thoughtfully contemplating the interest of time, his vision is illuminated by 100 years of GE technology. For this personal sculpture, an antique [General Electric] Thomson Watt Hour Meter, originally used for measuring electricity usage, was repurposed as a modern-day floor lamp.
Classic radiator parts from the ModVic Steampunk Church and Gallery were used as a pedestal base. The actual light source is a current GE product utilizing today’s LED technology which offers antique style while providing energy efficient cost savings.
The Bruce Humachine will ultimately be installed in his Velocipede Time Machine at the new ‘Nation of Inventors’ permanent exhibition at the Hagley Museum in 2021.
MODVIC GAME TABLE – SIZED JUST RIGHT FOR A NIGHT IN [LOCKDOWN]
A salvaged oak door with a window was recovered from a local high school and serves as the backbone of this Steampunk Chess Table. Stained glass checkerboard and vintage style light bulbs dazzle the eye.
Nemo’s Isolation Diving Bell
From the life size to the miniature, Bruce was re-inspired by Jules Verne’s vision from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – and used pieces near and dear to his personal history to engineer a mini replica of a solo piloted underwater exploration lab. Fashioned after early diving bells from the mid-1800’s, an artist’s mannequin sits inside the Steampunk sculpture surrounded by retro-futuristic technology and a vast ocean imagined by the viewer.
The cockpit is antique scientific lab glass in an upside-down conical position. A scientific instrument base fits as a natural “docking station”, which sits on a marble column that was in storage from Bruce’s parent’s house where it was on display in his family’s living room for over 40 years!
A lamp “goose” cable with glass eye connects to our hero’s inner chamber, while above him, a gas pipe valve with flexible hose brings air from the “mothership”. Parts from an early-1900s textile loom flying shuttle complete the Victorian décor.
Time Machine Clock
A historic wooden foundry pattern, used to make hatch doors for a submarine is the focal point of this antique clockface with modern clock mechanics.
This time piece is impressive and takes up the entire wall (approximately 5’ tall and 4’ across). The hatch design had circular “outgrowths” that were the exact size to mount a collection of antique pocket watches from the 1800’s, which Bruce had always wanted to incorporate into the theme of time travel.
Surrounding the left half is another curved foundry pattern, which is affixed with clock pendulums and classic brass fire hose nozzles.
Maxi Mixer
MAXI MIXER – built from a late-1800s dough mixer, this sculpture is another Steampunk humanoid figure that captures the imagination. Maxi’s head is the antique whisk with shoe stretchers, barrel skirt and industrial gears create more of the female form.
Maxi’s Mixer skirt was a repurposed incineration barrel for burning household paper waste.
Brass bedpost balls were used around the waste area.
Yes alright, we said it?! Bruce likes his female forms to have brass balls…
Perhaps her most mesmerizing feature was salvaged from a somewhat morbid history. Made of aluminum, the sculpture’s eyes were originally pieces used by morticians to reconstruct the facial features of the deceased to make a corpse more presentable for public viewing.
BEHIND THE SCENES – WHERE FORM MEETS FUNCTION
Bruce Rosenbaum working in his studio on details for the Quarantine Bar in Palmer, MA.
