What’s It Made Of? In the spirit of caring for the environment, the designers of the animals aboard Noah’s Ark at the Skirball used mainly repurposed and recycled materials. On your visit, look out for familiar objects that have been transformed into new, one-of-a-kind creations.
Norway Rat This lively rat’s colorful body is actually a used croquet ball. Croquet is a popular sport played around the world, in which players use a mallet to knock their balls through hoops stuck in the grass. Wrapped wire forms the arms, tail, and those wacky whiskers! The rat’s good-humored, comical expression is completed by a pair of buttons for eyes.
Barn Owl The Noah’s Ark owl hovers overhead with its majestic spread of wings made from red and black Asian fans. Barn owls are found on every continent in the world except for Antarctica, and can have wingspans of up to threeand-a-half feet! This owl’s body is composed of industrial steel coil, and its heart-shaped face was hand-carved out of wood.
Ram This ram’s design was directly inspired by a piece of art called Bull’s Head, created by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1942. Picasso’s work, just like this one, used an old bicycle seat for the head and bicycle handlebars for the horns. The ram’s fluffy body is made from cotton curtain fringe.
Wild Boar Inspired by punk kids sporting mohawk haircuts, designer Alan Maskin gave this friendly wild boar a stiff mane of brush bristles taken from a large industrial paintbrush. Its bright-yellow carved-wood body is fashionably complemented by a curly, yellow telephone cord tail.
Zebra The life-sized zebras at the entrance of the Ark are made of wood, keyboards, and wind turbines that visitors can make spin around. Every zebra in the world has its own pattern of distinctive stripes, unique to each individual.
Brown Kiwi The brown kiwi, a flightless bird native to New Zealand, is the only bird in the world with nostrils on the end of its beak, which it uses to sniff out underground insects. The slightly anxious-looking kiwi aboard Noah’s Ark has a body made from antique boxing gloves, paintbrushes for legs, and a tarnished old oil can for a head.
Rooster Designer Christopher M. Green used an old red cowboy boot to make this rooster puppet, who you might see rolling around the Ark floor. The flap of skin dangling under the rooster’s neck is called a wattle, and the fleshy crest atop its head is its comb.