Thursday, September 27, 2012

Perfect waste of good Kalashnikovs.

AK-47s get extreme makeover in new London art show.
Palestinian artist Laila Shawa said she was no stranger to the seemingly ubiquitous assault rifle.
"I'm very familiar with AK-47s so for me it was not a very strange feeling to carry the gun, but my first question to Bran was 'how many people did this gun kill?'," she told Reuters, standing next to an AK-47 covered in rhinestones and butterflies and with the barrel sprayed gold.
"In the Middle East, with the turmoil that we have, and as a Palestinian in particular, you find yourself at some point in your life having to defend yourself and that's why I know about it," she added.
Some of the artists confessed to feeling uncomfortable working on weapons once used in battle.
"While cleaning the gun in order to start working on it I went into the barrel of the gun and I found congealed blood and that brought the reality home," said Shawa.
Antony Micallef, whose large black, white and grey canvas features two AK-47s protruding from the head of an indefinable creature like horns, explained that he wanted to try and capture "that primal instinct of violence."
"For me the gun was inherently aggressive so I wanted to amplify that. I could never get away from that feeling."
"While cleaning the gun in order to start working on it I went into the barrel of the gun and I found congealed blood and that brought the reality home," said Shawa.
Yeah, right. In the barrel? Most likely she doesn't know shit from cosmoline. Anyway, it's a perfect waste of good Kalashnikovs.

8 comments:

SWIFT said...

She found congealed blood "in" the barrel? Sounds like she's been taking Drama Queen lessons from one of a couple government agencies.

MamaLiberty said...

Starting with the fact that the gun didn't kill anyone, of course... the person who pulled the trigger probably did.

And indeed, blood in the barrel would be extremely unlikely.

But that's show biz, I guess...

AntiCitizenOne said...

Oh the humanity!

Anonymous said...

One could just as easily ask, "How many lives did it save?"

Mutant Swarm said...

Wow, I'm sure glad she got those "guns off the streets."

Hey lady - did you know that some sources estimate that upward of 100 million AK-47s and their variants have been produced? And are still being produced? And that they can last up to 50 years?

Do you still feel relevant?

Anonymous said...

Just think that Kalishnikov was an Agriculture Engineer and designed "farm implements". The AK is so darn reliable and idiot-proof that it has been used in the sandy deserts of Africa and the swamps of SouthEast Asia and everywhere in between and has been an excellent killing machine. Compare that with the M-16 Mattell Toy that jammed in Vietnam to the new and improved M-4 that has jammed in Iraq and Afghanistan and due to those jams has cost many American lives. To turn an AK-47 into a work of art is a waste of a very fine weapon. Remember, Guns don't kill people, People kill people.

Anonymous said...

"Perfect waste of good Kalashnikovs."

True, but thankfully there are around 50 million more, of which I own 2. As for gun art, I much prefer the work of Oleg Volk, as he uses non-decommissioned arms and is a much better photographer. Here's an example:

http://olegvolk.net/gallery/technology/arms/AKSU_0388.jpg.html

Now, it's hard to tell which is more beautiful, the gun or the girl. I'd say the girl, but not by much.

Snaggle-Tooth Jones

Anonymous said...

My first thought, how many of YOUR OWN killed each other with this gun.