Jim Hornung makes dinosaurs the way they should have been

There’s always an installation in the front room at 2nd City Council Gallery, and it’s usually overshadowed by whatever’s on view in the rest of the room. Not this time. Encinitas artist Jim Hornung’s “Archeo-Art” is the wow show this small room needs.

With a coat of dark green paint and a plethora of carefully placed, beautifully housed artifacts, Hornung delivers one of his most successful installations ever, transforming this little kiosk into a mini-museum. Nothing here ever existed; it’s all a big fib. But with a great idea and a relentless backstory, Hornung pulls off an exhibit that—because it seems real—has every bit the heft of California Science Center’s “Body Worlds 2,” the 2005 extravaganza, and twice its sense of humor.

“Body Worlds 2” ended on a sour note. I was there the last afternoon—on a fetid March day—for the pushing and shoving and DVD-buying, as we all wormed our way past plastinated creatures, reaching out blindly for one last forbidden grope of their dessicated flesh.

Unless our priorities shift dramatically, “Archeo-Art” will probably be empty, clean and cool when you visit: primed to spark your imagination—and, of course, with a few mini-fossils for sale.

The premise seems to be Dinosaurs Reloaded, or as Hornung calls it, The Zocateq.

“The Zocateq,” he writes, “is a mythical bone creature created from the bones of different animals. Research indicates that the use of different animals gave the Zocateq the attributes of these animals.

“Traditionally Zocateqs have been strategically placed in a room to protect the environment from evil spirits. Because of the perishable nature of a Zocateq, surviving specimens are very rare . . .” Really? It seems like they’re all here, like the Turkle, whose name betrays its origins—one or two chromosomes short of being, perhaps, a Russian tortoise. It’s rendered here with a gold skeleton and a raw bone skull—and elsewhere, a nest of Turkle hatchlings in silver, sprung from giant eggs whose “shells” are lined in precious metal.

“With small stubby legs, the Turkle would appear to have limited movement,” Hornung writes. “It is theorized that the development of small wings aided the Turkle in short jumping . . . flights.” And there, on its back, are the stubs of those little wings—looking as real as the rest of it.

Elsewhere, you’ll see the humpy Two-Legged Shellback, which walked on two legs, but could surely see and smell far better than a caveman.

“A large skull with a complex sensory arrangement gave this large creature multiple visual and olfactory abilities,” the artist opines. “A small but very powerful pair of lips gave this biped the ability to crush the hardest object.”

Not much is known of Quadruped “Pelicat,” brought to light during the Low Country Expedition of September 2000—just this: “A well-preserved quadruped specimen buried in sediment.” Its skeleton, shown in a lucite case rimmed in dark wood, looks worthy of the British Museum.

A pictograph displayed above “Pelicat,” a letter from the National Academy of Geo-Historic Archaelogy, an exhibit “in the process of restoration,” and something marked Professor Hornung’s Latest Discovery . . . only enhance the mesmerizing effect of the utter—and utterly irresistible—lie. It’s sustained even when Hornung veers off into an exploration of primitive cultures.

His 5 Point Fertility Object and Moon Spirit Totem Bone—resembling a vertebrae and sections of a vertebral column, respectively—plainly reveal their origins in other bone and antler. But their descriptions reel you right back in. Even Hornung’s screed introducing his “For Sale” section never breaks character.

“These artifacts will be de-acquisitioned,” he writes, “to fund future research and expeditions into the world of the Zocateq and Archeo-Art.”

Anything you say, Dr. Jones—er, Hornung.

ARCHEO-ART 2ND CITY COUNCIL GALLERY | 435 ALAMITOS AVE | LONG BEACH 90802 | 562.901.0997 | 2NDCITYCOUNCIL.ORG | WED-SUN 12-5PM | RUNS INDEFINITELY | FREE

Tags: 2nd city council gallery, archeo-art, art, dinosaurs, Long Beach, the zocateq