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Artist puts vending machine with fake firearms near schools
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent3 Sep 2009
Pupils will be invited to “buy” fake guns from a vending machine in an art installation placed near London schools.
Artist Ben Turnbull has filled a bubble-gum dispenser with replica Beretta and Magnum firearms in a project he says will “explore” children's responses to violence. The dispenser will be outside newsagents near several schools over three days next week.
A secret camera inside the device will record the reaction of pupils looking into the “bubblegun”, while a photographer takes pictures nearby. Turnbull plans to use the images as part of an exhibition next month.
The machine will not actually dispense the fake weapons, but Lyn Costello, of the Mothers Against Murder and Aggression charity, wants Turnbull to cancel the project.
She said: “The kids will be excited by the sight of the guns. What they need to see is how they maim and kill.”
Turnbull, 35, of Battersea, said the project explored “the way a teenager's response to personal weapons has changed, in the wake of recent south London knife murders and the Virginia Tech and Columbine massacres”.
He admits he was worried about the police's reaction, adding: “I believe what I'm doing is a good thing, but it could be misconstrued as something dangerous that could frighten people.”
On Monday the machine will be near Shene School in East Sheen and Orleans Park School in Twickenham, which Turnbull attended; on Tuesday in Fulham at Hurlingham and Chelsea School and Henry Compton School; and on Wednesday Elliott School in Putney.
The machine, made of wood, perspex and steel, will catch pupils on their way to class.
The artist will stay nearby, before moving it to the second school for an afternoon session aimed at catching pupils on their way home.
His work, Kids Have Everything These Days, is the latest in a series investigating violence.
Turnbull's new show at the Eleven Fine Art gallery in Victoria next month presents old-fashioned desks with weapons carved into them.
“I'm an armoury collector, but it's not like I'm a gun freak. They are replicas that could not harm anybody,” he said.
Ms Costello added: “I would hate to think he's using the knife and gun problem to get his name known. I would rather he didn't do it.”
The “bubblegun” is filled with replica guns bought for up to £20 from shops in Whitechapel.
It is an offence to import or sell realistic replica firearms and to possess them in a public place “without reasonable excuse”.
A guns expert, who did not wish to be named, said it would be difficult for the replicas to be made into an offensive weapon.
A Met spokesman said: “We would like to find out more about the project.”
Reader views (2)
I think that this is a great idea as it will highlight as to how perverse & aggressive our society is becoming...
- Dan Beard, london, 10/09/2009 15:09
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I wholly support Mr. Turnbull and his exhibit.
Lyn Costello - She said: “The kids will be excited by the sight of the guns. What they need to see is how they maim and kill.”
She's missing the point entirely. Turnbull in his exhibit points out clearly that children and young adults and frankly anyone has access to illegal firearms basically anytime they want. It has nothing to do with enticing young people to possess a weapon.
Of course his statement and exhibit causes feelings of outrage simply by its presence. Irrespective of the fact that these are all replica firearms from over the counter shops and cannot be fired or even accessed in their secure exhibit, the fact remains that proper firearms are easily available to anyone looking for such things.
Perhaps the outrage would be better directed at illegal arms and their traders and dealers than at the artist pointing out the issue. HE'S not the problem, he's holding up a mirror.
You're the one looking into his mirror and the one having to ask if you're ignoring the problem if you don't have it staring back at you.
Society needs a kick in its complacent backside occasionally.
David A Rhys.
- David Adam Rhys, Wrexham, North Wales, 07/09/2009 15:11
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