Friday night the Harvard Museum of Natural History held a night of contemporary art interventions in its galleries. I created an installation in the Great Mammals Hall entitled "Keep Away". I was inspired by the interreflections between the animal cases (not, as reported, by a Ben Stiller movie...). From different viewpoints, the reflections make it seem like you can see through animals, or they produce hybrid animals created from views of different animals superimposed on one another. 
The installation is based on this environmental effect. 18 globes illuminated with colored lights are located throughout the space, some hung and others standing. The reflections cause the images of the globes to multiply. At times they appear inside the belly of one of the skeletons, other times they appear on the head of one of the tapirs. As the visitors walk through the exhibit, the reflections of the colored globes move as well, creating a dynamic environment.
One of the most challenging aspects of the installation, was getting light to the globes. When the lights in the galleries were turned off, the power to the electrical outlets was also cut. The solution turned out to be LED "puck lights", which are battery powered. This turned out to be a better overall solution because it eliminated all electrical wires.
More information about the exhibit including many of the other installations, is available at http://bizarreanimals.wordpress.com/ and information about the museum can be found at http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/.
Special thanks to Anna J. Baranczak for her help and to Osram Sylvania for their donations of LED lights.
