Sculptor Crafts Fantasy Vehicle
With Hand-Operated Machines from Years Ago
DEARBORN, MI, July 7, 1997 -- Swing open the double doors of artist and machinist Klaus Berner's shop in the former Oakland Motor Car Company factory in Pontiac, Michigan, and one seemingly steps back in time. Replete with classic machine tools, the lathes, milling machines and grinders could have been used by Ransom Olds to build his first engine.
Like Olds before him, the 34-year-old Berner uses the equipment to machine precision parts for industry, including the automobile business. Berner's most recent and public creation, however, is a metal sculpture for the Automotive Hall of Fame, under construction near Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, and scheduled to open in August.
Entitled "Aeropede," the whimsical tricycle with wings and a propeller pays tribute to the world's earliest inventors, from Leonardo da Vinci to Victorian Age engineers, who only imagined what an automobile might be and that, in fact, it might be a cycle that flies. Images of these inventors and their concepts appear on the walls of the mythology section of the Hall of Fame surrounding Berner's sculpture.
"I wanted to capture the spirit of those early inventors," said Berner. "At the same time, I wanted the work to be in keeping with the Hall of Fame's mission, which is not to be a museum of artifacts but a place to honor the people involved with the invention and evolution of the automobile." Berner's sculpture is in keeping with the mission of the Hall of Fame in another way: its interactive exhibits are designed to educate, entertain and inspire every family member about individual achievement.
To that end, Berner made the Aeropede kinetic and interactive, a signature of his art works. The tricycle will be mounted on a tall pedestal, and visitors will turn a crank at the bottom of the pedestal. The motion will drive the chains, gears and cams that will cause the delicate copper wings to undulate, the helicopter-style propeller to spin and the rear wheels to rotate.
"I wanted to tap into the sense of delight you have when you spin or move something," said Berner. "I wanted to capture the nonsensical aspect of the Victorian Age's flights of fancy so that it would appeal to a child as a toy-like object."
Indeed, a child will pilot the Aeropede. A life cast figure of Andy, a fictitious 10-year-old boy who was born in 1886, the year the first car, a Benz, was built, will be perched aboard the Aeropede's single seat. Throughout the Hall of Fame, similar life cast figures of Andy will introduce visitors to other displays to personalize their experience.
Berner focused not only on the toy-like aspect, but also on the craftsmanship of machining and the intricate mechanisms used to operate Aeropede. "Even though it could never fly, there's a mechanical sense to it that might intrigue an engineer to consider how it works," he said. The craftsmanship aspect of the auto industry is often overlooked, noted Berner. "It takes thousands of people out there making the gears, making the cams and making the total car work smoothly so it can run 100,000 miles without a breakdown."
Berner's idea for the Aeropede evolved over time, since beginning the project in late 1996. "I first started with the pure motion, then I explored how to achieve the motion and devise the mechanism to create the motion," he said. With a wingspan of eight feet, the Aeropede is Berner's largest artwork to date. Yet all of his works, some of which have been displayed at Detroit-area art galleries, share characteristics with the Aeropede, including the kinetic motion and the machined metal appearance. Berner gained his machining skills in his father's Ferndale, Michigan, machine
shop, where he worked throughout his youth and after graduating from college with a psychology degree. He returned to school – Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan – for metalsmithing and a master's degree in fine arts. Three years ago, he launched his own business in the former Oakland factory where his father and two brothers also have machine shops.
It is Berner's precision machining for the auto industry that pays the bills. He is as enthusiastic and precise about his industrial work, like the minuscule gauging probe he is working on that is about the width of a ball point pen with ball bearings matching the head of a pin.
Berner draws inspiration from the eclectic collection of precision measurement tools, antique cameras and watches, early industrial books and engineering magazines that surround him in his shop/studio.
"I view myself as part of the last generation of people that do the kind of work I do," said Berner. "People will always make things in metal, but it is being done more on computerized machines, not using five different hand-operated machines to create one object like the machinists and engineers of the 1930s and 1940s." In the end, Berner hopes his precision and craftsmanship on the Aeropede will pay off in it having a long life within the Automotive Hall of Fame. "I look forward to visiting the Hall of Fame in 10 or 20 years. Maybe a child will be cranking away on the Aeropede and say, 'Cool.' It's the wide-eyed emotional connection my work and the person viewing it that drives me."
The new Automotive Hall of Fame is designed and built to be a visitor attraction and educational resource. It celebrates accomplished people of the worldwide motor vehicle industry for the purpose of inspiring others, especially young people, to higher levels of achievement in their own work and lives. It is a unique "people place" of innovation and inspiration where interactive experiences and one-on-one demonstrations are entertaining and enlightening.
Automotive Hall of Fame hours of operation and admission: through October, daily, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; November through Memorial Day, daily except Mondays,
10 a.m.-5 p.m.; admission, $6 adult, $5.50 senior 62+, $3 youth.
21400 Oakwood Boulevard
Dearborn, MI 48121 USA
Telephone (313) 240-4000
Fax (313) 240-8641
