Mat Bevel's Museum Of Kinetic Art

Mat Bevel Company is home to the Museum Of Kinetic Art, over 150 found-object kinetic sculptures created by sculptor Ned Schaper. He uses only what’s available—found objects—as the raw materials for his sculptures, along with his understanding of mechanics and physics. The real magic is in Schaper’s intuitive engineering approach. He does not know what the object will become when he begins his process. Instead, by working with the materials of the found object, he lets the object’s ultimate function emerge on its own, which leads to beautiful and unexpected results. Schaper performs with and wears all the sculptures in the museum as part of his one-man Surrealistic Pop Science Theater. Each sculpture has a unique name: Americana Duck, Lover Boy, Sharka, Chicken Pox and The Thought Launcher. They each have a purpose too. The sculptures in the museum come to life as theater’s sets, props, costumes and puppets. The story takes place in the world of Beveldom, “a lost land of found objects” where discarded objects find magical new life. Host Mat Bevel along with a huge cast of characters, all played by Schaper and his mechanical puppets, demonstrate the wonders of kinetic art using poetry, music, movement and light. The Museum Of Kinetic Art will soon be captured as a virtual reality tour and broadcast via Bevelvision Productions at MatBevel.com. In 2014, these sculptures were featured in a 2-month solo retrospective exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art called Welcome to Beveldom: Mat Bevel’s Museum of Kinetic Art. For the first time, the Tucson Museum of Art included live performances as part of a solo artist exhibition, with two performances. The kid-friendly exhibition and performances broke all attendance records during this time period for the Tucson Museum of Art.