Weapons Culture

Weapons culture 2015, screenprint on Tiepolo and charcoal in etched glass reagent bottle

This work consists of two parts. The book, ‘The Weapons Culture’ by physicist Ralph E Lapp published in 1968, utilised in this work traces the rise of weapons culture and its domination on American society. I employ the burnt book in my art practice in a transformation that exposes the materiality of the physical, organic form to engage in altered perceptions of the frame in which the book was set. The process of transformation involves pyrolysis which reduces the book to an almost pure carbon state which is ground as charcoal and stored in the reagent bottle. A portion of charcoal pigment from the book is crushed into a paste based ink to screenprint a summary of expenditure per capita that reveals the contrast between military expenditure and arts funding. This information was sourced via the internet from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the American National Endowment for the Arts and is cited at the base of the print.

The work was submitted as part of a group show at the H D Skinner Annex, Otago Museum to support the Art + Design Symposium held at the Dunedin School of Art 16-17 October 2015

Showing alongside this work was a print collaboration, UGANDA, produced by Neil Emmerson and me.

‘Withdrawn’

Following four highly successful symposia held at the Dunedin School of Art – ‘Illustrating the Unseeable: Reconnecting Art and Science’ (2009), ‘Art and Law’ (2010) ‘Art and Medicine’ (2011), and ‘Art and Food’ (2012) – the Dunedin School of Art and Brandbach organised a further Symposium, ‘Art and Money’, in August 2013.

The symposium included an exhibition at the Dunedin School of Art gallery.

Installation view ‘Art & Money’ with works by Pamela Brown and Kerry McKay (foreground), Blair Kennedy and Andrea McSweeney, Marion Wassenaar, and Andrew Hurle

‘Withdrawn’ 2013

Withdrawn includes a digital reproduction taken from the original dust jacket of a retired library book. The hand written text below the image shows a summary of expenditure per capita that reveals the contrast between military expenditure and arts funding.

World military expenditure in 2012 is estimated to have been $249 per capita. Comparison of funding per capita by selected arts Councils and agencies: Arts Council of Wales, $17.80, 2012/2013; Arts Council of England, $13.54, 2010; Australian Council, $8.16, 2010/2011; Creative New Zealand, $2.98, 2009/2010; National Endowment for the Arts USA, $0.47, 2012

On a shelf, directly beneath the image, sits the the library book reduced to a carbon shell.

Withdrawn, 2013, ex library book and digital print, book size 13 x 22 x 14 cm, digital print 39 x 61 cm