ALIEN PUMA SPACE TRAIN: THE VISIONARY WORK OF DANIEL S. CHRISTIANSEN

PRIVATE VIEW: Friday 3rd October 7pm

EXHIBITION: Sat 4th October – Sat 1st November, Mon – Sat, 12 – 6pm

Saved from the detritus of a basement clearance in Asheville, North Carolina is a hand made wooden box, inside it is contained the life’s work and research of Daniel S Christiansen. Christiansen was the son of Danish Seventh Day Adventists, little is known about his life, he immigrated to America in 1927, worked as a carpenter, served in the US army during WW2 and was married to a woman he refers to as Nady, who helped him with his work. He passed away in 1994, leaving behind him a mysterious box of approximately 100 pages of extraordinary and evocative artefacts created between 1930's and the 1980's.

Contained within the box are a number of hand drawn maps, several beautifully detailed technical drawings of possible alien craft mechanical components and hand written essays. On the 7/71977 Christiansen himself has a potential UFO sighting which he documents and refers to as ‘The Tampa Bay Observation’, this experience connects his various interests in UFOs, unusual weather patterns and the biblical apocalypse and prompts the expressive apex of this incredible collection; A series of epic, fantastical renditions of winged, four-headed extra-terrestrial humanoids, sophisticated alien craft and scenes of alien visitations which are closely aligned with the mystical and visionary imagery and narrative of ‘The Book of Ezekiel’ in the old testament.

An extraterestrial [sic] visitation by an identifiable flying object, treated at some length in the scriptures of old, when the son of man claims he had a like visitation twice – once at the river Chebar and then again out in the plains, as he again saw what appears to be on the order of what is represented in the above.  That such a visitation actually could take place here in St. Petersburg in the near future is believable when considering that a related extraterrestrial event took place only a few hundred miles from here at the city of Mobile Alabama in connection with the shooting of the movie Close Encounter of the Third Kind, for a period of the duration of the filming.  Daniel Christiansen, March 1981

In November 2013 when the contents of the box emerged online, it went viral almost instantly becoming known as “Box of Crazy”, provoking hundreds of interpretations from all over the world within days. Theories ranging from feverish quasi-religious testimonies to fastidious, factual research to unpack and rationalize the events depicted in the box as well as 3D renditions of the technical drawings and countless iterations of fan art and memes.

We are extremely proud to present the first public presentation of Daniel S Christiansen’s extraordinary box.