CLAREMONT, CA.- The Claremont Museum of Art will present Ten Pound Ape: Your Mother was Beautiful Once, part vier, from Wednesday, May 20 through Sunday, September 27, 2009. The Museum will host a public opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 30.

Founded in 2004 in Guanajuato, Mexico, Ten Pound Ape is an international art collective that engages in public intervention projects, which question the nature of civic sculpture, co‐opt the verbiage of non‐commercial street advertisements, and expand the boundaries of community. For this exhibition, Ten Pound Ape presents the fourth part of a series where the group builds a site‐specific performance sculpture from collected urban debris and ephemera. This project fits the Museum’s objective of encouraging and supporting direct public engagement in its programming.

“The slightly subversive nature of this project is really playful and actually quite sentimental,” said Claremont Museum of Art Curator Pilar Tompkins. “Many of the exhibition's planned events are inspired by biographical experiences from Ten Pound Ape members. As one of the artists put it, this is his ‘love letter to Claremont.’”

During the opening reception, members of the collective will play records within the sculpture and give out fortunes and tokens. After the performance, the space will open up to the community, inviting viewers to explore, change the interior or exterior, work on small‐scale art projects or just lounge.