Lecturer creates 'peace sculpture' from fighter jet
A Russian fighter jet and a British Rolls Royce engine have been fused together by a lecturer from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) to create a unique peace sculpture.
Anthony Heywood, Head of Sculpture on the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at UCA Canterbury, spent three weeks in Sweden this summer working with a group of international artists to make Peace Monuments out of old war materials.
Anthony Heywood said: "It's been a fun but exhausting few weeks: taking apart a bullet-proof fighter jet is as hard as it sounds but it was fantastic to work with teams of artists from all over the world.
"The size of the work was monumental and couldn't be done without specialist lifting or cutting equipment - just removing the wings took four 12-hour days for a team of three - MiGs are not meant to come apart, it seems."
Anthony welded the fuselage of a Russian MiG and British Merlin Rolls-Royce engine and suspended it over the River Abroga to create a 3,000kg statement.
He said: "I wanted to juxtapose and collage two political and philosophical positions by bringing together iconic pieces of warcraft from two formerly hostile nations.
"The town of Abroga was a prominent producer of munitions for over 400 years and the river would have played an important part in the manufacturing and transporting process.
"I wanted the work to express the vulnerability of life and to remind all levels of community that something so iconic and powerful can also evoke fragility, which is why I chose to site it precariously above the water from a crane.
"The sculpture also offers the audience a curious and monumental image to reconcile in their thinking. I hope that it will stay in the memory of the community and carry a strong response from local, national and international communities."
15 international working artists from the USA, China, UK, Germany, Holland, Romania and Sweden worked on the outdoor peace monuments from 22 July to 12 August 2012.
Organiser of the project, Richard Brixel, said: "The purpose of this project is create a number of artworks for a permanent sculpture park of Peace Monuments in Arboga.
"We hope it will help change the perception of this former military factory town into a town for peace, development and human understanding of non-violence."
Visit www.peacemonuments.se.
For more information contact:
David Reilly, Press Officer, UCA
T: 01252 892939
E: dreilly@ucreative.ac.uk
