Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 55

Jwhere can you fum 7 1 Deliver the West? Joe Clark when you need tacts. Insight couldn't deliver pizza in these parts, says Lome GunterF8 Books F6 reprints and in-depth research? JournalSearch 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 429-5580 ii'iiili 'ri i i Artists Wallis Kendal and Sandra Bromley examine a deactivated shotgun barrel they have cut up for The Gun Sculpture a project aimed at world peace. So far they've made a miniature wax model of the sculpture On background).

The real thing will be much bigger a 'room' three metres long by two Xd if iij.P'; I metres wide and 7,, iv much heavier four tonnes of disabled weapons. Part of the artists' arsenal will be a plasma torch (below) Photos: 1 i mtk. Shaughn Butts, i Guns for peace THE PROJECT The i human 2000 Inter-national Arts Society was conceived by Edmonton artists Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendal and incorporated as a non-profit group in January 1997. Its mandate is to support artistic projects with humanitarian peacemaKinq r- mm. -w- will taBl Two local artists who carry a torch for peace want to weld the world's people together with a powerful message of hope a four-tonne-plus sculpture composed of thousands of disabled weapons of war I themes.

i human 2000 has a six-person board of directors, which includes an architect, a psychologist and two university professors. The board is chaired by Mary LeMessurier, Alberta's former minister of culture The budget for the project is $800,000, of which $250,000 will come from a grant from the Millennium Bureau of Canada, a federal agency to help promote projects for the year 2000. The i human society must raise another $1 50,000 in cash. The group hopes to secure $400,000 in goods and services from various companies and individuals. About two-thirds of that is already arranged, they say.

THE GUN SCULPTURE The sculpture is expected to be about three metres long, two metres wide and 2 metres high and will weigh four tonnes. It will have a small entrance. The artists expect to use between 6,000 and 8,000 disabled guns, land mines and artillery shells in the walls, ceiling and floor. Forty-four countries have been asked to send weapons. The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Edmonton Art Gallery in January 2000.

"It would be difficult to conceive of a more positive utilization of the weapons which represent our past failure," she says in a brochure promoting the project The whole thing began three years ago, after Bromley and Kendal met at where else? an art exhibition. He was bowled over by the power of her big, bold, wood sculptures. They decided to work on a project together. The original idea was to be called The Last Supper; the plan was to feature 13 works by 13 different artists around the world. After several months of planning, and staring at a potential cost of $5 million, they put that idea aside and began a search, Bromley says, for something "do-able." The i human 2000 team settled first on two projects.

A children's sculpture project was held last fall and more than 1,000 local young people got involved. Next, a survey was sent to people around the world, asking what event they thought had been most influential in the last 1,000 years and what they predicted would be the most important influence in the next century "We wanted to get a sense of what people thought was important so we could put that in our work," Bromley says. Worldwide Fear of Violence Many who responded cited armed violence domestic, racial, international, religious as one of the major challenges of the future. The artists decided to incorporate that fear, and perhaps an accompanying sense of hope, into their millennium project They were talking about it one day Bromley recalls, when "Wallis said to me, 'Let's use real And I thought, 'Wow! That's so powerful Let's get the guns from all over the The first, and by far the highest hurdle, was to find a way to import guns into Canada, which ways to end violence. The gun sculpture is the millennium project of a local group called the i human 2000 Peace Initiative.

The plan is to deactivate 6,000 to 8,000 guns, land mines and artillery shells around the world, ship them to Edmonton and turn them into art. When it's finished, the sculpture will be the size and shape of a prison cell, so visitors can walk inside and feel what's it like to be surrounded by weapons. And therein lies the metaphor. "The real power will be that each gun will have a narrative," says Kendal, a painter and writer who has been active in Edmonton's art community for 40 years. A huge panel will be hung on the wall near the sculpture, listing the countries that contributed weapons and, in as many cases as possible, the histories and stories of the guns themselves.

"Put together, those statements will be global." The $800,000 project is backed by a board of directors chaired by Mary LeMessurier, Alberta's former culture minister and former agent general in London. "I feel very honoured to be associated with this," says LeMessurier. "This is a major, major international project and it's starting right here in Edmonton. Honourary board members include Senator Doug Roche, the former ambassador for disarmament at the United Nations, and Ed Powell the city's former auditor general Calgary's Chief of Police, Christine Silverberg, has called it an "exciting Rick McConnell Journal Staff Writer Edmonton When Wallis Kendal speaks by telephone Monday to the Irish Republican Army, he will have one request. Send me 150 guns so I can make a statement to the world.

That statement will be called The Gun Sculpture and Kendal will ask Alex Maskey of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm, to contribute weapons to it as a gesture of peace. The work of art, constructed from decommissioned guns, will be built next year in an Edmonton studio by Kendal and sculptor Sandra Bromley Its first appearance is planned for January 2000 at the Edmonton Art Gallery After that, organizers hope it will tour the world, promoting peace and raising Canada's profile as a peacekeeper. The bold undertaking has already received a $250,000 grant from the Millennium Bureau of Canada, a federal government program to help promote and fund projects for the year 2000. A studio has been rented near Kingsway Mali A project director has been hired. Some time next month the first shipment of guns is expected to arrive.

Then the real creative work can begin on a project the artists hope will have people all over the world talking about has some of the strictest firearms regulations in the world. Wallis and Bromley began looking at ways to deactivate the guns that would meet federal regulations. They worked with officials from the Justice Department and in the end, decided to use two methods: either the guns would be squashed in a metal press leaving them flat on one side or melted at key points with a torch. Either way what's left will be "totally useless," says Bromley "They can't ever be used again." Jim Hayes, the Justice Department's coordinator of international firearms issues in Ottawa, says the guns will be deactivated in their countries of origin. The methods the artists have asked other countries to use exceed Canada's federal regulations, he says.

"They've developed standards to make firearms into non-firearms," he says. The two artists started with a wax model and will soon begin building a full-size Styrofoam mock up. The next step is to get the guns. Please see PEACEF2 and innovative" project 1 Bart and Barbie reign: Pop culture is now America's biggest export, reaching into every corner of the globe and around every barrier set up to block it No compromise: With the ferocity of a dragon, former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten defends the politics of principle in East and West. BooksF6 t.

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