I often challenge myself to learn new techniques with my art. I am driven by experimentation and exploration of new processes. With this project, I am using my specific jewelry technique to create a large kinetic gun-form. In this sculpture, titled, Gatling Gun, I am exploring the ancient subject of ‘war and peace’, but with a contemporary twist.
Today, as always, there are many countries at war. Most armies believe they fight a ‘just’ war. Although I am not a ‘pacifist’, I know that all war, in the end, only brings death, misery and fear. In exploring this issue, I have designed a Gatling Gun, a ‘machine gun’, that is combined with a ‘music box’. When the viewer tries to operate this gun, there are no bullets, instead, it shoots ‘peaceful sounds’. It is my hope, that when shooting it, people will stop fighting, if even, for a single moment. It is a gun of peace.
Gatling Gun, is fabricated from copper and nickel-silver, and is 25 inches long, by 10 inches high. There are 6 gun barrels made with 5/8-inch diameter copper tubing. 16 and 18-gauge copper and nickel-silver sheets form the body and bolt carrier, and a 3-inch diameter copper tube creates the moving cylinder, allowing the realistic motion of an actual Gatling gun.
Hidden within the base is a music box. This is an 18-note, wind-up music box, with its crank connected to the gun’s handle. Cranking the gun, plays the music. I have manipulated the keys within the music box, to create a unique tune. Thus, I hope viewers experience my hope to create peaceful action through peaceful melody.
Today, as always, there are many countries at war. Most armies believe they fight a ‘just’ war. Although I am not a ‘pacifist’, I know that all war, in the end, only brings death, misery and fear. In exploring this issue, I have designed a Gatling Gun, a ‘machine gun’, that is combined with a ‘music box’. When the viewer tries to operate this gun, there are no bullets, instead, it shoots ‘peaceful sounds’. It is my hope, that when shooting it, people will stop fighting, if even, for a single moment. It is a gun of peace.
Gatling Gun, is fabricated from copper and nickel-silver, and is 25 inches long, by 10 inches high. There are 6 gun barrels made with 5/8-inch diameter copper tubing. 16 and 18-gauge copper and nickel-silver sheets form the body and bolt carrier, and a 3-inch diameter copper tube creates the moving cylinder, allowing the realistic motion of an actual Gatling gun.
Hidden within the base is a music box. This is an 18-note, wind-up music box, with its crank connected to the gun’s handle. Cranking the gun, plays the music. I have manipulated the keys within the music box, to create a unique tune. Thus, I hope viewers experience my hope to create peaceful action through peaceful melody.