I had no interest in history at school. The main reason was that I didn't believe the narrative of good guys versus bad guys or events happening in sequential order all tied up neatly in a beautiful bow. The history of wars is written by the victors and so comes with a heavy dose of propaganda. It is only as time goes by and leaked documents start to seep out that a more full picture emerges and we can then piece together what really happened. Usually, this contradicts what we have been told originally but unfortunately, the official narrative is so ingrained, that even though the truth is out there nobody really bothers to update the beliefs held.
I have been told that WW1 was started because of the killing of Archduke Ferdinand. WW2 was because Hitler invaded Poland. A US ship was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin and led to The Vietnam War. The war in Afghanistan was because some guy in a cave organised an attack on the US. Colin Powell held up a vial of yellow dust and talked of weapons of mass destruction. All these things were told to us by politicians, the security services and the media whose business is war. Egging us on to take a side and do our part in a fight to the death. It is only as time goes by that we find that there were many lies being told. If I didn't know any better I would think that the powers that be just liked war and would do whatever it takes to start or get involved in one.
You would think that as humans we would be more sceptical. Still, when there are calls to attack another country to bring them democracy and freedom, we always seem to crash in the same car. Lybia, Syria and soon to be... who knows?
All this has led to me questioning everything, sometimes to the point of insanity. If they lied so much in the past what are we to believe? At the end of the day, it is all imperialism. And now, even the main internet information sources censor and push the beneficial narrative while suppressing the rest. Do I listen to the loudest voices or those that wear tinfoil hats? I really don't know.
I write all this because it shows my mindset when sculpting and writing about historic events. I know nothing and don't claim to depict the truth. Only what I have been told and researched and ultimately put my own particular Chinese whisper to.
Pearl harbour (The official story)
The story goes that on one Sunday morning in 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour and so the US had to join the second world war.
Raising the USS Arizona
When I was asked to create a sculpture of the USS Arizona being attacked as it sat in port I really had no interest. I am not particularly fond of war and have no interest in memorialising it. I am a pacifist and will kick the crap out of anyone who says I'm not. I do however like machines and must say that these killing machines are pretty awesome. If only mankind would divert the energy it takes to make these into fun stuff then I think we would have a better world. But war is big business and so there is no expense spared in building these floating cities with lots of guns.
I treated the ship as if it was an oversized Aerfix™ kit. Once I blocked out the hull I made hundreds of separate elements and stuck them in place with a syringe filled with water. I made the whole thing list a few degrees to port to give it a bit more life and a reaction to the plane hitting the forward gun.
I tried to be as accurate to the original as possible but as you probably know by now I hate making straight lines and so everything was done by eye. I also had to be careful that the detail was chunky enough to not melt over the course of the exhibition. There were a few seamen on deck and even a little Kate Winslet and Leonardo the Caprio at the bow having a Titanic moment.
The Arizona was a Pennsylvania class Super Dreadnought and it was sunk when a torpedo hit the magazine and all its weapons exploded. I like to think that if it had not had so many weapons of mass destruction on board it would have been grand and the 1177 crewmen would have survived. War is one tragedy after the other.
I was given a large ice wall as the background and used this to show the planes attacking. I wanted to keep it pretty simple to read. I made a frame of clouds and smoke from snow and tried to hide the ice as much as possible. The large vertical bands are where two ice blokes join and I have yet to find a way to hide it. (Photoshopers! That would be cheating!)
On the back I used negative carving to show the planes coming from Japan.
Closer to the ship I used a mixture of positive and negative carving on the back and front of the ice to suspend the planes in the air. I was very happy with how this looked. The plane above was made half in and half out of the ice, a stab in the ice with the chainsaw was all that was needed for the left wing.
I must confess that I had more fun making the planes than the ship. Playing with negative carving is a great excercise, both mentally and physically, as you have to walk back and forth to the front to see if the effect is working.
As with most ice projects I did in in early days I had to leave before the final lighting was added and so my photos were just taken with the working lights. I will update this post if I ever come across an image of how it finally looked. Still, I do like these near black and white images as they work for the era I was trying to depict.
My heart goes out to the sailors who lost their lives on that Sunday morning, as does it to all those who died during that horrible war.