Who knew?
Today’s news carried the story of an anti-gun sculpture in Birmingham, AL. The piece, which was proposed in 1994, is tanking, but may be revived in a reduced form if funds can be found for it. The concept was proposed by a Birmingham pediatrician as a way to use guns surrendered during the annual MLK holiday weapons buy-back. It would include a huge vortex with gun handles and barrels sticking out. The whole, of course, would be made from melted gun parts. Pretty slick.
So I wondered about anti-gun sculptures. Are there others? How have they been used? And, as so often happens, I ran into a sculpture world I never knew existed. It seems that a lot of people had the same idea over about a five year period. Some of the examples have been pretty amazing.
There is, of course, the anti-gun sculpture in front of the UN. It’s a monumental piece of a gun tied in knots. The message seems clear enough- this organization seeks to stop the use of violence. It was actually created as a memorial to John Lennon.  (Photo by Inger Mewburn)
Then there was the 1997 plough that was created by a Mennonite sculptor from guns turned in during the 1994 buy-back in DC.
And the biggest of the pieces, and most widely known (though not by me until now), is the “Art of Peacemaking” from Canadian artists Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendall. It was made from 7000 guns that were donated by police, military and communities around the world, including South Korea, Spain and South Africa. They were then melted into a huge block formed to look like a giant coffin.
And the firestorm all these pieces have drawn from the gun lobby, is, of course, a story in itself.
12:41:50 PM 
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