MicroBalrog
member
http://allafrica.com/stories/200309190438.html
Gun, Landmine Scrap Makes Beautiful Art
The Monitor (Kampala)
September 19, 2003
Posted to the web September 19, 2003
Moses Serugo
Kampala
Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov must be a name most Mozambiqans hate. His invention, the AK47 rifle, is responsible for the deaths of up to one million people in a civil war that pitted the fighting groups Frelimo and Renamo against each other.
A piece of Feil dos Santos' art work currently on exhibition at Afriart Gallery at UMA show grounds. Dos Santos (inset) is from Mozambique (Photos by Henry Bongyereirwe).
But one man has found a redeeming way for turning the AK47 and the other killing and maiming devices like landmines. Visiting Mozambiqan artist Feil dos Santos' display of sculpture in the ongoing exhibition From Weapons To Art at the Afriart Gallery at the UMA Show grounds in Lugogo is a show of a man coming to terms with a trying time in his country's history and his own life.
The pieces share something in common - their rusty nature. They are made from gun and landmine scrap and joined together as shown by dos Santos' dexterity at using welding rods and goggles to create his rusty but eye-catching work.
Take Dual Surrender, a human sculpture in which he uses AK47 gun trigger handles for ears and bullet shells for head hair.
It depicts a man seated with one leg stretched and his arms bent at the elbows and the wrists and the hands stretched outwards. He looks like he is begging for alms because in the ordinary surrender mode you put your hands at the back of your head. Dos Santos says it shows a man that has resigned himself to his fate.
Melody shows a man blowing a harmonica. Various gun parts form his limbs. Dos Santos says most Mozambiquans found solace in music after the war ended in 1992.
The chair is an impressive piece that is welded of gun parts and pistols.
Crawler is another piece that will draw your attention. It conjures the image of a destructive insect in a sci-fi movie. AK47 gun rods form its legs while gun springs form the insect's antennae.
Dos Santos did not go out there looking for the guns himself. An NGO called Christian Concern collected the guns for him in a scheme that sees the NGO ask people to hand in their old guns in exchange for tools like bicycles and sewing machines that they can use to rebuild their lives.
Even as he explains to curious exhibition goers in smattering English, he says it is difficult living in a war zone. The anguish shows on his face as he tells of his family's happiness at seeing his brother who was fighting alongside the Renamo rebels return home in one piece.
Dos Santos, who lives 14 kilometres from Maputo, his country's capital, says he also lost his car in the 2000 floods.
The exhibition was preceded by a workshop that had Ugandan artists try their hand at wielding welding rods with goggles over their eyes. Most of the Ugandan artists delved into contemporary subjects and it was quite easy to tell most of them could not relate with any war situation in our history - maybe because they were too young the last time we had a war.
There were two metallic sculptures titled Mr Gaetano and Mrs Gaetano. Another piece titled Soccer Fever must have had to do with the current soccer craze in the country.
Charles Sewali's untitled piece leaves nothing to the imagination with a brass metal piece depicting a man with an erection in a pre-coitus posture. The exhibition will run until the end of this month.
Note the phrase:Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov must be a name most Mozambiqans hate.
Current Mozambique flag
