Info

2006

A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division
Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

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Bill Burns--A Clubhouse for Safety Gear for Small Animals – Swiss Division, 2006 – Photo: Bill Burns

Bill Burns, director of Safety Gear for Small Animals, came to Switzerland for the first time in the summer of 2006. He was there to present his products in an exhibition, at the preview of which he personally addressed the guests, saying a few words about the history and purpose of his company. Safety Gear for Small Animals, which he founded in 1993, is not only specialized in making safety gear for small animals, but also produces printed matter, drawings, and photographs to promote and spread awareness of the company’s products.

The prototypes developed by Safety Gear for Small Animals had been on view previously in the exhibition Safe: Design Takes on Risk at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005. The gear offered by the company includes knee-pads, flotation devices, gloves, dust masks, bullet-proof vests, tents, hard hats and safety goggles for wild animals whose natural habitats are being destroyed. Photographs available from the now globally active Canadian company picture animals in humiliating situations — ants stashed in a shaver or rodents under the bonnet of a VW beetle, for example. In addition, Safety Gear for Small Animals offers implants and prostheses as well as complete survival kits for severely endangered small animals like frogs and prairie dogs.

In Amden, Bill Burns set up a clubhouse, open not only to potential members but to anyone interested in the ecological concerns of Safety Gear for Small Animals. Pairs of toy figures attached to the outside wall, in each case a man and beast seen against the mountain panorama and representing the six rescue missions undertaken between 1995 and 2006 (monk with tiger, man with bear, dog / bird / man, man with caribou, man with deer, man with mountain goat could be made out through little peepholes. Burns also displayed a selection of books on natural history and the history of civilization, all copied in miniature, as well as insignia patches and flags commemorating some of the company’s most important campaigns.

A windsock in front of the barn, inscribed with the chemical formula for water (H2O), identified the location of the clubhouse, and by referencing the brook flowing by it and the lake below it functioned as a reminder of how important water is for animal, vegetable, and human life. On display at the entrance to the exhibition was a copy of the letter Burns sent to the then president of the United States, George W. Bush, in which he recommended Safety Gear for Small Animals for rescue missions in war-torn Iraq and the Middle East. The letter was never answered.

– Roman Kurzmeyer