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Visual Activism
"Implicit in the knowledge of injustice is the responsibility to take action against it." -- Axiom
By: Danielle Hickie
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| Friday, 11-Jul-2003 00:00 |
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Making a memorial from 5 ships funnels
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The memorial was hung with bells, to draw attention.
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The full text written on the side
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This is a full scale view. It is still a work in progress.
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I was asked to come in on Friday to help with building the memorial so I cycled frantically across Amsterdam. After getting way lost I arrived at the warehouse. The welders were going at it out the back, sparks flying like thoughts, covered in dirty black from head to toe.
I went out the back and got changed into some white workmans overalls. My damn pink knickers showed through quite alarmingly, I thought, but then I reasoned that no one would give a damn. I kept hoping that as I worked in and around the monument, weaving around teh 5 pieces of warped steel, culled from beached polluted ships from Alang, India.
I met the artist, a lady with bright blue eyes, looking steadily and cheerfully out from a top to toe layer of grime. She showed me how to use an orbital sander. My girly pink hands which have never done a day of intense manual labor in their lives quickly learned to love the machine that could make so much noise and make the sparks fly!! I'd want to play with one of those again anyday! I also got to wear a welders helmet,and stare at the welding over the welders shoulder. When you put one on, and draw the plastic earmuffs over your ears, you are suddenly submerged in a quiet inky dark world, wherein the olny thing you can see is the sparks from the welding torch, searing acid green across your landscape of blackness.
The welder I watched was an Iranian, a former political refugee, who has postponed his wedding to make the massive monument. While his dark eyes were friendly enough, his hands looks like they told a story of endless hard work.
In the end I was instructed to draw a few lines on the side so that we could write the purpose of the memorial in white. Quite a trick to do with a warped piece of steel.
We painted these words on the memorial:
"This monument represents the lives lost and the envronmental damage caused by the breaking of old ships. It is made of waste; funnels from polluting ships scrapped in Alang, India.
One funnel came from a ship that recently exploded. Nine people died in that explosion. Ship owners will continue sending toxic ships to breaking yards unless things change.
The sight and sound of the momument should remind the international community to take responsibility.
London, July 14, 2003."
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