A giant gold cat head will soon appear in Calgary, courtesy of the Art Director’s Club (ADC).
The story-tall cat head is one part Japanese Maneki-neko, one part Egyptian Mau, and was first shown off at ADC’s annual award show in Miami back in April.
One more thing: it projects art via lasers that shoot out of its eyes.
Laser Cat Canada from Hungry Castle on Vimeo.
The ADC-commissioned Laser Cat from the Barcelona-based art duo Hungry Castle. It will be on display from Sept. 10 to 14 at the Beakerhead festival for art, science and engineering. On Sept. 13 it will project personal art projects made by creatives from the ad industry.
According to Ignacio Oreamuno, the ADC’s executive director, the commission was designed to showcase the off-hours art made by the ad industry and to “recommit the creative industries to the art and craft of advertising and design.
“There is one thing that advertising and design professionals have in common: we all got into the industry because of our passionate affinity and love for art,” he said.
“This is a celebration of the art in our business,” he said. “I want to take every single piece of art created by every art director, copywriter, illustrator, motion designer, photographer, creative director, film maker and even account person in our industry and let Laser Cat project it to the world.”
In the past, well-known creatives like graphic designers Milton Glaser and James Victore have submitted their art to the project, as did famed art director George Lois. Staffers from agencies around the world including Mother, Wieden+Kennedy, Leo Burnett and DDB Worldwide have also “fed the cat” alongside A-listers like the graffiti artist Banksy and filmmaker David Lynch.
This time around, said he’s hoping Canadians creatives will submit their art to be eaten by Laser Cat and projected. “We know for a fact, that Canada has a thriving creative community full of great personal art,” said Hungry Castle artist Killian Cooper. “We just need to spread the word around the country so that Laser Cat can eat and project as much of it as possible in Calgary.
