Clusterbomb Bears: the Czech Republic

Clusterbomb Bears in Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora

and overlooking Staré Město from Prague Castle.

The Ossuary in Kutna Hora contains the remains of 40,000-70,000 people who died from the plague and wars in the 14-15th century. All of the bones were dug up when a nearby town was mining the area for silver- and the cemetery was in the way. The church gave the job of stacking bones to a half-blind monk (1570s). Later the Schwarzenbergs, wealthy Bohemian aristocrats owned the church and charged František Rint, a woodcarver (1800s) with figuring out what to do with the bodies. He decided to decorate the church with them- which has things like altars, garlands, and a chandelier all formed by human bones.

Through the wars and occupations of Prague by the early 1910s, traveling folk puppeteers often kept most of the stories and history alive going from town to town putting on performances that subtly challenged or critiqued society. Some were even put on trial for their political activism, but they shifted the blame onto the puppets.

Puppets and a replication of the theater used by Katel Novak

(1920s) in the Plzen Marionette Museum

While Prague was never bombed in WWII, it was occupied by the Nazis and later the Russians until 1989. During those periods, the Czech culture was threatened- people were stifled, jailed, and probably killed.

One such project that uses puppeteering as political commentary during the Russian occupation is Jiří Trnka's The Hand (1965):

This continued through the 1980s, and when Communism finally left Czech Republic there was a flood of creative power and freedom. While visiting, it was amazing to find how many interesting projects began in the years immediately following the occupation.

Maybe these stories don't seem to relate to my Clusterbomb Bears post, but I'm beginning to see why I pick the areas that I do for my installations. It's often because I want to relate the stories of an oppressed tribal, creative, or working class culture and unify these places through the symbolism of the Clusterbomb Bears as an absurd, immature, irresponsible, and deadly imperialistic occupier.

Clusterbomb Bears: Southwestern New Mexico and Gila Cliff Dwellings

In November 2010, Eamon and I got married in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Afterward we took a short trip around Southwestern New Mexico including City of Rocks, Tome Hill, the Gila Wilderness, and Gila Cliff Dwellings. While on the trip, I took some Clusterbomb Bear photos in the region.

Clusterbomb Bears: Hammerfest, Norway

New photos of the Clusterbomb Bears photo installation project during our trip to Norway for the Oslo Comix Expo in June 2010. I photographed the bears in Hammerfest, a small fishing village in the Arctic Circle and then sold all the bears at the Expo in Oslo.

The photos are in a Sami Burial Ground, near the shore of the Artic Ocean, in an outdoor facility for drying fish- which was historically a main industry of the town before oil refining companies took over, and on the summit of a mountain in the town of Hammerfest.

I will be showing these photos at the International Art In Response To Violence Confrence in Chicago, IL September 30- October 1 2010. I will also be giving a presentation about my personal and community art work in Baltimore as well as experiences and opportunities for like-minded artists in the city. I also will be giving a workshop on shrine building.

Clusterbomb Bears: Chicago

I incorporated my background in photography into this series, installing my small sculptures of Clusterbomb Bears in various locations in the city of Chicago and documenting the installations in the style of a photojournalist. The Clusterbomb Bears are cast plaster and found objects, faux finished using a process that takes on the same look of the casing of decomposing metal bombs found in bombsites. Using the same teddy bear symbol from my previous Watermine Bears, I am referencing a symbol of security and children that originated in the United States.

While we do not live amongst bombs, we must imagine what it would be like. Much of the population of the world is subjected to these situations, often at the hands of countries like ours. Clusterbombs are perhaps the most horrible of all weapons currently used in conflicts. Indiscriminate bombing in residential areas where civilians are maimed and killed by unexploded bombs waiting in the rubble. Children will find these bombs and think they are food or toys. The military will often argue that it is not cost effective to clean up after bombing campaigns. What I am hoping to achieve through this series is to enable civilians of our culture to imagine what it must be like to live amongst bombs. To help us understand what others are going through, and help pressure our military as well as the military of other countries - to stop using such weapons.

As a sculptor, I am influenced by international photojournalism, conversations, and news reports. I have a history of political activism and community organizing, and use this in my conceptual sculptures to address cultural problems and inspire thoughtful change in communities. During the course of this project, I spoke with people in the communities in which I installed my work as my project led to occasional random observers. The dialogues included discussions about military recruitment practices, bomb testing in Vieques, PR, and current military campaigns.

Clusterbomb Bears, creation and installation

For this series, I had been working with imagery by photojournalist Sean Sutton and Mines Advisory Group America (MAG). The images he provides cover the efforts of MAG to clear military debris from former conflict zones in areas such as Iraq, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Vietnam. Inspired by the visual impact of his documentation of the devastation coupled with news reports of people attempting to piece their lives together amongst bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq from National Public Radio, I wanted to help us envision the international landscape by setting it here.