At first, the figures are haunting, beautiful echoes of the enduring Greek and Roman marbles of the ancients. Then comes the stark reality: each is a broken body, named after a type of landmine. Artist Blake talks with Farah Ameen about Fragments, his generous and compelling campaign to raise funds with UNA-USA's Adopt-A-Minefield® to eradicate these hidden devices that take lives and limbs long after conflicts are over.
A three-month trip to Vietnam in 2003 to teach sculpture at the Hanoi Fine Arts University changed Blake Ward's life forever. While his students worked on their pieces, Blake toured Cambodia and Vietnam, where he learned that the Vietnam War was still taking casualties 30 years after it had ended.
"It shocked me. I found that very hard to understand and I found that terribly unfair, because the victims had to be innocent — they couldn't have been involved."
As he researched the landmine crisis, Blake said he began to realize that his generation and his parents' had "contaminated" the world.
"We need to stand up and recognize that and do something about it," he said.
Blake got involved with the demining operation and began filming a documentary.
Upon returning to Monaco, where the Canadian artist has made his home for 19 years, Blake began focusing public attention on the landmine tragedy.
"As an artist, I am privileged to have the freedom to think the unthinkable and to speak the unspeakable and to manifest these ideas in my art."
Fragments — a collection of 19 bronze figures, one-quarter life-size, representing the devastating effects of war on society — were begun almost a decade before, inspired by archaeological remnants of Greek and Roman sculptures destroyed in the cycles of war.
Blake re-created the series, naming the sculptures after landmines — Pomz-2M, Gator Blu-92, Maped F1, Pineapple Cluster BLU-3, Scatmine Blu 92, among others.
Soon the pieces started to take on a life of their own:
"They were very strong, crying out about the innocent civilians killed, not during the conflict, which is sad enough, but after the conflict, which I thought was unforgivable."
Canada's Prairies, Paris, Monaco
Blake grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and studied at the University of Alberta where, amid the modern art explosion of the early 1970s, he began creating abstract sculptures. He later apprenticedin Paris under the American artist Cyril Heck. Fulfilling a promise to his mentor, Blake still helps train new artists who are interested in the ancient sculpting techniques.
Blake's art consists of three distinct kinds of sculptures: first, the very traditional, "decorative" pieces that are often about dance, from classical to flamenco to modern. The second type consists of his We Think series of classical figurative work, which makes a political, social or religious statement.
Fragments bronze sculptures are the third group, with sculptures that are a juxtaposition of perfectly proportioned bodies destroyed to symbolize the imperfections caused by war.
"I find we can identify humanity even in some of the smaller badly damaged ones," Blake said. "The destruction is deliberate as it often is in war, and yet, after we rebuild we have created something of dust. And some of that is dedicated to survivors, who have to re-create their lives."
It can take Blake up to 100 hours to complete each piece. He creates a clay sculpture, with a live model posing for about 80 hours, and allows the clay to dry. Blake then breaks the pieces carefully, with an eye on the aesthetics and on the high-risk technique.
"I'm trying to take off a piece in a way that the sculpture will appear injured but remain intact, damaged but still live."
It's a very "fearful time," he said, because after the intense investment of time and creativity, the fragile clay could be lost in an instant.
The final steps involve taking a mold and then casting the work in bronze.
Adopt-A-Minefield®
In 2006 Blake began working with No More Landmines, the United Kingdom partner of UNA-USA's Adopt-A-Minefield program.
These campaigns help communities around the world by removing landmines and unexploded ordnance, providing assistance to survivors and teaching about dangerous mines.
"If you have pictures of people injured by landmines or unexploded ordnance, it's quite gruesome," he said. "I wanted to bring about the same sort of effect through the actual art. I wanted clients to say, 'I'll buy this piece if you clear a minefield in Vietnam or Afghanistan,' where we're going to do some mine-risk education this year with the money raised from these sculptures."
The sculptures sell for $23,000 to $29,000, with 75 percent of the sale proceeds going to Adopt-A-Minefield, which then directs its share of donations into field operations rather than administration.
So far, Blake had sold two sculptures in New York, raising $35,000.
Pre-exhibition sales of his sculptures have helped clear landmines, cluster bombs and other unexploded weapons from communities and villages in Vietnam.
In Angola, they have funded mapping equipment to identify minefields, thereby enhancing the safety of people living nearby.
"I have something very important to say, and it's very serious. And I need to say it quickly... the cause has added a great deal of influence and passion to my work," said Blake.
His art symbolizes hope, but he does not think "hope is that strong a beacon here [in the US] at the moment because of the war [in Iraq] and that's just human nature."
He wants to change that, one sculpture at a time.
Legacy of Landmines
(Sidebar from the article)
Landmines and similar devices have been banned since 1999 by the International Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, with 156 countries signing, but not the US, China or Russia.
Landmines do not distinguish among targets — they are just as likely to kill a child as a soldier. They also restrict farming and the rebuilding of roads and bridges.
Statistics cited in the article:
Approximately 15,000–20,000 civilians are killed or maimed each year.
Most affected: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, Angola, parts of the former Yugoslavia, and parts of South America.
Mines cost as little as $3 to produce and $1,000 to remove.
Mines laid during World War II were still killing and maiming civilians.
Between 2002 and 2003, new landmine casualties were reported in 65 countries; 41 were not at war.
As of November 2007, 42 million antipersonnel landmines had been destroyed and 81 countries were considered clear.