PHOTOS: Robotic Rooster Lands on West Street
Artist Walker Babington is working beside the Loews Hotel on West Street to bring his chicken named BOCK to life.
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Another chicken scuplture has joined the flock on West Street.
Artist Walker Babington is working throughout the weekend in a nook next to the entrance of the Loews Hotel to create his robotic looking rooster.
It's the second of what could be dozens of chicken scupltures to adorn the Capital Central Arts district in Annapolis. The burgeoning flock is part of the Anne Arundel Arts Council's outdoor art project Hatching the Arts.
Babington's named the chicken BOCK, which is an acronym for Biomechanical, Ovulometrical Chicken from Kalamazoo.
"He's basically a historically futuristic multi-dimensional chicken overlord whose job has become obsolete and has since become a junkyard warrior," Babington told Patch in September.
Babington said a lot of people have stopped and asked if BOCK's made out of copper.
"One lady asked me if I was going to paint him," Babington said.
He takes it as compliment since he used paint to faux finish the chicken's fiberglass exterior and glued on bolts to create the illusion of metal.
Babington creates his art using found objects so BOCK's hat is from an old leather jacket, his tail is made from driftwood and his beak is from a copper rain gutter. He's installing an old fuse box over BOCK's heart that will open to reveal BOCK's mechanical "guts."
"There won't be any sign telling people the box opens," Babbington said. "It's a present for the adventurous."
He thought about adding a saddle, but he worried it might encourage people to try to "ride" the rooster for pictures. Babington said he plans to give BOCK one mechanical leg and one with a cowboy boot, which is actually three boots sewn together to resemble a chicken's foot.
In August, artists Jimi Haha and Jeff Alan Huntington painted their chicken in the garden beside Lemongrass on West Street.
The Arts Council hopes to have the first six chicken sculptures in place before the Annapolis Fringe Festival, which is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 21.
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