Gary wearing his Steam Powered Brain Wave Enhancer,
dressed for a costume party with his wife Abby. —Karen McCall photo
Gary Sullivan, a long-time expert in furniture and clocks who may be familiar to readers because of his multiple-season appearance on the Antiques Roadshow, recently shared with Antiques and The Arts Weekly a love of steampunk and the creative Maker Art Movement. Fascinated and wanting to know more about what could be considered his alter ego, we pressed him to go public with what drives his interest.
For readers who aren’t in the know, what is Steampunk?
Steampunk is a science-fiction genre set in the Victorian steam-powered era. The steampunk aesthetic consists of a mashup of advanced technologies, driven by steam power, all with a Nineteenth Century coal-fired, industrial feel. Turning gears, sea monsters, dirigibles and Victorian-esque costume…all play prominently in the alternate history that is steampunk. Visualize Jules Verne’s, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, or the gadgets and contraptions found in Will Smith’s 1999 film, Wild Wild West.
Steampunk is a broad term that includes a number of different things, including sculpture, 2-D art, costumes, gadgetry and more. Some of these categories appeal to me and some do not. The aspect that I’m most involved in is the maker culture of creating steampunk art from found materials.
What is the appeal?
I’m a fan of DIY and love the artisan spirit of the Maker Art Movement. I enjoy tinkering with the pointless when I can find the time. I love creating objects from junk, particularly kinetic art. “Why?” is a question that I hear a lot. Many of my friends don’t understand the point of it. All I can answer is, “I find it fun and challenging.” Those who get it, get it, but many do not. I can already hear the questions that I’ll be fielding from your readers who know me but didn’t know about this hobby.
I was told that you go to the Burning Man art festival. Does that relate to your steampunk interests?
It does indeed. Burning Man is a festival held in the Nevada desert each year and virtually every one of the 80,000 attendees is an artist of some kind. The art and creativity that you can see and experience there is beyond description. Burning Man has a reputation for being a crazy party, but that’s not why some of us attend. For me, it’s all about the amazing art and the creative and fascinating people I meet. In 2017 I created a steampunk bicycle for the event, which I have brought each year since. It is difficult to transport and at 165 pounds, even more difficult to ride, but the attendees love it.
Gary with his steam boiler, a recently completed sculpture made of various materials and painted to look like iron. This boiler will eventually “power” a kinetic wall of gears.
Tell me more about steampunk sculpture.
Steampunk sculpture, particularly pieces that look like a historic device of some sort, are often given a name by their creator. The challenge is to invent a name for the device that sounds plausible for a history that never was. Victorian-era words are often incorporated into the title, as are made up words. In this case, my bicycle is a “Rotary Motion Conveyancer.” For the record, perambulation of the conveyancer is achieved via a tri-thermal fly-invertor incorporating breedle refraction. Stay with me here! I know we just lost some readers. It’s science fiction, people! Fact is, this stuff is fun and pretty goofy. It stands in contrast to the buttoned-up life I lead as a scholar, curator and author in the Americana world, but one has to have fun.
Can you explain how this conveyancer works?
It is my biggest project to date. You can’t imagine how many hours it takes to create something like this. What may not be apparent in the photo is that it has seven gears that rotate while underway. The three large gears in front are driven simply by the smallest one resting on the front wheel, which keeps all three in motion. I hope you appreciate that I’m giving away precious design secrets here. In the center of the frame is a large planetary gear, riding on three small idler gears. They are driven by pins in the sprocket and rotate when the vehicle is being peddled. Old mechanical egg-beaters held against both tires provide a lot of animation. Like any good conveyancer, it is electrified with several lights in strategic places. It even belches “steam” when the operator feeds it dry ice pellets. It has an elaborate dashboard that is mounted with all the conveniences and necessities of a modern day smart phone. Just a few of the accessories include an old candlestick telephone, an old bellows camera, a clock, a calculator (a small abacus), and an alarm (a small alarm mechanism from a mid-Nineteenth Century mantel clock, etc.
How and when did you get into steampunk?
I’ve been making assemblage art since I was a young teen and still enjoy it today. I began by collecting old bottles and insulators. I would dig in ancient dumps for bottles. I would find shards of pottery and glass and attach them to objects with putty. At some point they gave a name to what I was already doing.
How does it dovetail with your background and experience as a furniture and clock expert and dealer?
Other than the fact that I’m fond of the Victorian aesthetic and I love all things old and historic, the obvious connection is through clocks. My interest in early American clocks goes back 50 years. Ouch! I’m dating myself! I have specialized in clocks my entire career (this is my 48th year in business).
One of the most significant and important aspects of the steampunk aesthetic is moving or turning gears that engage with each other. This meshes nicely with my interest in clocks.
Gary’s Steam Powered Brain Wave Enhancer. Made of scavenged materials,
the lid of the hat opens and closes, while puffing “steam.” Clockmaker
Michael Poisson provided invaluable help with the operational clockwork.
Did steampunk draw you into clocks?
No. Actually, I’ve always been a furniture guy. Even though I’m considered the clock guy, only between 10 and 20 percent of my business has been clocks. My principal interest has always been the furniture aspect of clocks, the cases rather than the works, though I do like and appreciate the movements. They are interesting mechanical devices, but to a large degree, I’m all about the cases. I was actually drawn into clocks quite by accident. Some of the first antiques dealers that I got to know as a teenager liked clocks and handled them often. I sort of fell into it.
What are you doing these days? Do you have new projects going on?
Just recently, I built a “cast iron” Victorian-era steam boiler, the sort you’d find in a Nineteenth Century factory, which is on the back wall of my barn. People walk in and say, “Wow!” They think it is real. It’s actually made of fiberglass and wood but appears to be cast iron. It’s Phase One of what is going to be my “steampunk magnum opus,” a giant wall of gears engaging with each other, rods going back and forth…a wall of kinetic activity that will measure about 8 feet tall by 15 feet long.
One thing I’d really like to do is curate a world class exhibition of steampunk art: there’s some amazing steampunk art out there. My boiler and kinetic wall would be the centerpiece of that. Bringing in some of the fantastical steampunk creations made in Europe would be amazing.
How did you construct it?
The boiler is made mostly of plywood, with some fiberglass. I usually get help with my projects from craftsman who are far more talented than I am. Things like welding and electrical are beyond me. A friend helps me with welding and my brother does the electrical. In this case, I got help with the Fiberglass work, the CNC routing of the raised lettering and the surface painting. My son, who is an artist and animator usually has some input. My art includes lots of things I’ve found or acquired over the years.
Gary riding his 165 pound Rotary Motion Conveyancer, a kinetic steampunk sculpture that he made for the 2017 Burning Man art festival. —Matt Sullivan photo, 2022
Where do you find stuff?
Many years ago, I used to do a lot of estate liquidation and I accumulated a lot of stuff doing them. The old homes in the Boston suburbs were an excellent source for bits and pieces. Every Victorian home had a little workshop in the basement, with old tools and various brass and metal junks. The steam boiler incorporates an old brass faucet, an old industrial thermometer from an industrial boiler, pieces of Victorian beds and part of an old microscope. Fragments that I find get incorporated into the art. Some of it I’ve bought at places like Brimfield; if I see some really interesting piece I think will work as part of steampunk sculpture, I’ll buy it and put it on a shelf.
Unlike most other types of art, the objects dictate in what direction I go. I dig through my pile of junk and try to fit the pieces together into something that is interesting.
Do you sell it?
No, I’ve never sold anything. Someone once offered me $10,000 for my steampunk hat but I didn’t take it – I’ve got more time invested in it than that.
Does your family “get it”? Are they supportive?
My family is very supportive. They understand being artistic. My wife is also an artist. She is a very talented and serious quilter. She recently retired from a career as a professional photographer. Now she takes amazing photographs for fun. She thinks I’m a little nuts and it’s hard to disagree, but she puts up with me. My three kids like my creations and sometimes offer suggestions on projects that are underway. My youngest is an extremely talented artist and animator. He usually makes suggestions that improve the overall look of my projects. My greater family “kind of” gets it – some think its ingenious, others think its wacky.
Unrelated to steampunk, what else are you working on?
I’m still doing a lot of client representation at auction. I embrace the challenge of helping clients refine their collections by occasionally adding a gem. I was very active at the recent sales in New York City and we had some success. Although I no longer carry a massive inventory, I always have some interesting pieces that are usually fresh to the market. I don’t need to tell you or anyone else how difficult it has become to buy high-end Americana privately. I still have a decent network of contacts in Greater Boston and in Rhode Island who find me wonderful things from time to time. I have had some great opportunities in the last few years to help a few collectors to rehome some superb pieces that I sold 15 to 25 years ago. My focus on Rhode Island furniture continues and, of course, finding important clocks will always be at the top of my list.
What about your scholarly pursuits?
I’m always quietly gathering information on important clocks and New England furniture. Sadly, my most recent curatorial project was cancelled last year due to program changes and Covid. It was to be a landmark exhibition of Connecticut tall case clocks and silver made by the clockmakers (who in Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century Connecticut were often seriously legitimate silversmiths). My co-curator Brandy Culp and I spent a few years on it, and we found absolutely amazing objects, including several account books kept by early Connecticut clockmakers. I was able to present some of our findings at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors 2021 symposium. Maybe the project will be revived one day, but for now, I have a little more free time to tinker with steampunk sculpture.
-Madelia Hickman Ring
