Film: Ron Suffield. (2.mins. 52 secs.). Music :'WarLord' by the Shadows. Materials: Record player, ammunition box, surveyors tripod, toy army lorry, toy Landrover, model shop, gun parts, bullets, two images of a short range nuclear missile, oil paints.
'A couple of things I learned at school' ...No.1
"A woodwork teacher (Mr Baker) told me that when he was a child the second world war had just finnished so it was quite easy to find live bullets. When he got one, he and his friends would hold it between two bricks and hit the back end with a hammer and nail to make it go off."
'A couple of things I learned at school' ...No.1
"A woodwork teacher (Mr Baker) told me that when he was a child the second world war had just finnished so it was quite easy to find live bullets. When he got one, he and his friends would hold it between two bricks and hit the back end with a hammer and nail to make it go off."
(Art Exchange gallery -University of Essex) Photo: Jo Newman
|
The long spike on the left is actually a bayonet. A lot of the moving elements are actually made from gun parts and bullets- sort of late twentieth century 'trench art'. Photo: Jo Newman
|
(Art Exchange gallery -University of Essex) Photo: Jo Newman
|
(Art Exchange gallery -University of Essex) Photo: Jo Newman
|
The trade name for the hammer was coincidentaly 'Thor' - the war god. Photo: Jo Newman
|
The work is switched on by pushing the plunger. Photo: Jo Newman
|
'A couple of things I learned at school' ...No.2
"I had a history teacher (Mr Waters) in the early eighties who predicted the end of the cold war based on econmics. He was right. A couple of years later Ronald Reagan's 'Strategic Defensive Initiative' (also known as 'Star Wars') effectively bankrupted the Soviet Union as they couldn't afford to escalate the arms race. Money and commerce had triumphed over ideology. Historians today believe Reagan was bluffing. In a sense, 'bullshit' triumphed over ideology."
"I had a history teacher (Mr Waters) in the early eighties who predicted the end of the cold war based on econmics. He was right. A couple of years later Ronald Reagan's 'Strategic Defensive Initiative' (also known as 'Star Wars') effectively bankrupted the Soviet Union as they couldn't afford to escalate the arms race. Money and commerce had triumphed over ideology. Historians today believe Reagan was bluffing. In a sense, 'bullshit' triumphed over ideology."
The officer is about to launch the missile by pushing the plunger. (Hopefully this wasn't a real launch as the man in background is standing very close to it.
|
The image of the missile about to be launched is reproduced inside the record players lid. Photo: Jo Newman
|
The tripod on the left of the image is referenced by the tripod used to mount the record player on.
|
The image is on the reverse of the model railway shop Photo: Jo Newman
|
The model shop was a cardboard scenary accessory for a model railway layout. Photo: Jo Newman
|
The two images of the missile were also reproduced in minature in the shop window.
|
The Bluewater missile was an attempt by Britain to design its own short range nuclear missile. It was never put into production because it cost to much money. Today in Britain the name "Bluewater" is more commonly associated with a shopping centre on the M25 in Kent.
Also shown more recently (2017) in Remants of Utopia also at 'Art Exchange'. Other shows include Hertford University gallery in 'Hope of Wrecks' (2013) curated by Andrew Marsh and Simon Hollington. Also used as a foyer piece for 'All Roads Lead to Rome' (2013- 2022), see also 'The Juddykes'(2007).