Pratchaya Phinthong, 2019
Open edition created from melted UXOs (Unexploded ordnance, unexploded bombs, and explosive remnants of war) originally thrown by the US forces during the Secret War in Laos between 1964 and 1973. Laos is one of the most heavily bombed areas in the world.
Metal, paper box, color postcard
Object: 9 x 13,3 cm aprox
Box: 3 x 11,4 x 15,9 cm
Postcard: 10,5 x 14,9 cm
Hearing that locals were collecting and melting down these bombs to make spoons to sell to tourists, Pratchaya Phinthong visited Napia.
€ 250
“The Spoon project is an organic system in which products are made within the context of place, content, and ressources… There are two components to the project. On the one hand, I began to work with the villagers to create multiple productions that will transform bomb scraps into saleable items to support the local community. This income supplements limits to agricultural production , due to UXOs (Unexploded ordnance, unexploded bombs, and explosive remnants of war), which continue to threaten people’s lives and limit their access to cultivatable land. On the other hand, the project challenges my practice as an artist and cultural producer by asking to what extent an art production can communicate to an audience just how a collision unfolds between different worlds. What lay in this reflection and its reality.”
Pratchaya Phinthong