Ghosts: Art Project on the African Arms Trade

A few weeks ago we heard about Ghosts an art project by South African filmmaker Ralph Ziman. Our friends at 10and5 interviewed Ziman and found out the motivation behind the project as well as the creative process.

While spending time in Johannesburg I was, like everyone else, horrified by the crime and the proliferation of weapons. The ease with which they can be acquired and the fascination the culture has with guns in general and the AK-47 in particular. The way that struggle songs lionize the gun. The sound the gun makes, the look of it. I wanted to challenge those perceptions and to find a way to explore the subject. I wondered about who was shipping the guns into Africa. I wanted to manufacture non-lethal weapons in Africa and ship them to the west. In the end we made several hundred beaded guns, thousands of rounds of bead ammunition and shipped them in a container to the US.

– Ralph Ziman

Check out the interview