South African artist decorates fighter jet with over 35-million beads
As the famous saying goes, 'Make art, not war,' but what happens when you combine them?
Ralph Ziman, a Johannesburg-born artist, recalls the first time he had a gun drawn on him.
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He was 13 or 14 years old, hanging out at a mall in the northern suburbs of his hometown with some of his friends.
It was the mid-1970s, and he can't remember the details.
What he does remember is the stranger pointing a .45 Magnum at them.
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The situation de-escalated, but Ziman told CNN that he had a gun pulled on him 15 to 20 times by the time he was 50 years old.
Unsurprisingly, he has always been anti-gun, but has chosen to make weapons the focus of his work for over a decade.
Ziman, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has held numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
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His latest undertaking is a project he has been working on for 12 years.
The project is called the 'Weapons of Mass Production' trilogy and is rooted in Ziman's experiences growing up in Apartheid South Africa.
The trilogy examines the impact of the arms trade on global conflicts and the continued militarization of police forces worldwide, by transforming symbols of violence and oppression into works of art that inspire a reflection on history, resistance, and current conflicts.
Ziman's work combines vivid and dark imagery, commenting on serious issues such as the international arms trade, trophy hunting and more.
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For the 'Weapons of Mass Production' trilogy, Ziman used millions of hand-threaded beads to turn war machines into art.
The project began in 2013 with dozens of mock AK-47 rifles, decorated with wire frames and beads.
His next bead-covered piece was a Casspir, a heavily armoured, mine-resistant vehicle that was created for the South African police and deployed in townships.
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Each artwork in the series is connected to South Africa's recent past in some way, and together, they convey the beauty and violence that are constantly at odds in the country.
Ziman has concluded his most ambitious work to date for the final instalment of the 'Weapons of Mass Production'.
An entire fighter jet covered from head to tail in beads.
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The MiG-21 is a Soviet-era fighter jet, the most-produced military jet in the world, and Ziman began beading the plane in 2019.
Why did Ziman choose this specific jet?
CNN writes, "In the 1980s, South Africa was involved in both the Angola Civil War (1975-2002) and the South African Border War (1966-1990). The Cold War proxy conflicts pulled in multiple entities, including Cuba, which flew MiG-21s against South Africa’s air force, inflicting loses in what proved a costly venture, financially and politically, for South Africa."
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Ziman and a team of over 100 artisans took more than five years to complete the artwork, which has now been unveiled at The Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Have a look below:
There’s no mechanized way of doing this, everything on that plane is 100% handmade. I can’t even begin to think about the hours that have gone into it. I’d always loved beadwork. I’d grown up with it; I had an Ndebele nanny who always brought us beaded stuff. Even though it took a tremendous amount of skill and this tremendous effort to make anything out of beads, it was looked down on. I always wanted to elevate it to being a fine art.
The design work was completed on the plane itself, using sheets of paper stuck to its panels that would then be detailed, removed and sent to South Africa.
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The largest of the panels was over 6m wide and weighed 13 to 18 kg once completed.
The team estimates that the jet, which is 15,5 m long and has a 7,3 m wingspan, is covered in approximately 35 million beads.
Ziman employed artisans who are part of Anointed Hands, a collective of beadworkers overseen by Thenjiwe Pretty Nkogatsi.
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This project will also help future generations in a significant way.
DTCare, the charity arm of international logistics firm DTGruelle, which supported the MiG-21 project, is providing educational sponsorship to 25 of the artisans' children and other young people.
The jet will go on sale after it has toured the US, with proceeds funding the educational program and art therapy for children in Ukraine.
I love the idea that we take this thing that was built in the Soviet Union … has been donated to us, and we can sell it and put some of that money back into helping some of the civilian population who’ve been so brutalized in the war (with Russia).
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