A mortar-shell-shaped vending machine dispensing casts of bullets and shrapnel from the Ukraine War
I converted an vending machine to resemble a mortar bomb. It dispenses capsules representing the ball bearings used in explosive devices. Intended to dispense trinkets like toy soldiers for children, my capsules contain plaster casts of shrapnel and a bullet from the Ukraine war. When you hold them in your hand I hope it will affect you how it affected me. (Thank you to All Things Nice Vending for their support, providing empty capsules and maintenance for the machine).
Now at The Minories Gallery in Colchester, this is the only place you can buy my artworks for £2.00! Money collected will benefit RAMA who work with refugees in the city, many of whom have been directly or indirectly affected by conflict.
Read More In 2015 I was invited to Ukraine to speak about provocative art at the Eastern Partnership Culture Congress Lviv. The theme was ‘The Mission of Culture During Crisis’. This was the first time I’d been to a country that was at war on its own territory. There I met a woman whose brother had been wounded, whilst fighting at the front and was now convalescing. She took from her handbag some pieces of shrapnel and a heavy calibre bullet and showed them to me. I was instantly drawn to these cold, jagged objects, which I saw as little nuggets of human suffering. They were tangible symbols of the horror of war. It is visceral and disturbing to handle things that indiscriminately tear through human flesh. Since I always travel with my casting materials, I asked her if I may borrow them and turned my hotel room into a workshop to make plaster copies. I didn’t know what I would do with them but I knew I wanted to do something. My maternal grandfather was from what is now Ukraine and escaped to the UK from revolutionary Russia. My paternal grandfather was gassed in the trenches in WWI. My parents endured WWII. Perhaps I was foolish to never imagine I’d see such scenes as thus in Europe in my lifetime. It makes me feel sick. I feel for the soldiers, the civilians and especially the children. They are all victims and their whole lives will be blighted. I myself suffer from PTSD so I know what is waiting for so many of the survivors. “War is young men dying and old men talking” Franklin D. Roosevelt War and peace, nationhood and identity have been continual themes in my work. “Peace Machine Number 1” I made whilst still at art school. I often incorporate casts of emotionally loaded objects like these in my work. This is how my artworks begin. Something like this niggles me. It’s like picking at a loose thread. I find out what I’m doing and why by doing it. As I worked with these objects the concept slowly revealed itself to me. I decided there is something obscene about children playing with war toys. I remember being obsessed with them. But when you think about it it’s grotesque. Taking a child’s toy and converting it into something sinister as a fundraiser became my adult obsession. This piece is about all wars but its genesis in Ukraine means I must use it now to help the people there. Read Less