Dark Art part 2: Charles Krafft visited Sarajevo in 1998 and upon his return set out to produce porcelain replicas of the weapons used in the Balkan conflict. He borrowed weapons from black market arms dealers and created slip-molds and then cast them in white porcelain. Then he decorated the porcelain weapons with the beautiful and classical Delft ornaments. He exhibited them at the Slovenian Ministry of Defense under the title: "The porcelain war museum project" in 1999. Krafft said:"My aim is to produce a delicate arsenal of life-size ceramic weaponry so gorgeous and patently functionless that they will bedazzle and confound everyone who sees them."
I don't like guns and have a hard time with the concept, that here in America anybody has the right to bear arms (maybe , because I am European!?). Krafft's porcelain guns are the best statement of political criticism towards guns and violence. It is so poetic and therefore reaches me on a deep level. A gun out of porcelain is an object of utmost vulnerability. You have to handle it with care, because if you drop it , it will break - just like a real gun can break life...
