This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book with Dr Craig Hilton called ‘Seeds of Life’ which will be published this year on Rim Books. ————————————————————————————————————————————————— Why did I start collecting and why bones in particular? It’s always easiest to just put the blame on my parents. My father was a medical specialist and my [...]

Mere de Rat (Rat Mother) 195 mm high/ 100 mm deep/265 mm wide . The main skull is from a Vervet Monkey. The creature is cuddling  a rat skull in paws made from ther feet of Black-backed Gull. It also contains bones from Tasmanian Wallabies (Bennett’s Wallaby), Brush-tailed possum, rabbit and snapper. The custom jade base [...]

I find it strange that not many people are prepared to use real human skulls in art today, although their visual representations appear absolutely everywhere. I recently acquired an old skull which had been sitting in the bottom of a cupboard for years and was in very poor condition. I decided to use it in [...]

Kiribati Warrior (2014) A life-size portrait bust of a warrior from the Kiribati Islands made using paper and wood as the base, crushed bone on the face and thousands of small bones from rabbits, possums, ferrets, stoats, a cat and numerous small birds covering the rest of the object. The spines on the head are [...]

The first bone guitar is a collaboration between textural bone artist – Bruce Mahalski and guitar maker David Gilberd of Goldbeard Guitars. It is an   acoustic slim body, steel string(6) dreadnought (1030mm long)  which has been handmade by Goldbeard  from spruce and mahogany. The front and sides of the instrument has been covered in [...]

Bruce Mahalski has joined forces with  multimedia artist, Jeiko Despotovich  to produce a range of  limited edition art prints  featuring some of the recent bone sculptures. The first print features Bone Gun#2 – the M16 replica – as well as labeling the individual skulls and bones used in its construction and the specifications of the [...]

These circular and ‘square’  wall-mounted shields  made from recycled wood, wire, fillers, glues and found/gifted bone material. Each circle is approximately 60 x 60 cm wide and is focused around the skull of a domestic cow or steer. They weigh approximately 14 kilos each. Photos by Michael Hall and Bruce Mahalski White Circle One Contains [...]

The latest bone gun by New Zealand bone artist – Mahalski – is  a life-size AK47 (330mm x 940mm)  featuring bones from  rabbit, stoat, ferret, sheep, , pheasant, wallaby,  snapper, snake, blackbird,  tarakihi, hedgehog, broad-billed prion , thrush,,cat and possum (plus a single bone from the skull of an extinct  moa ). It is displayed [...]