The Tree of Life

Cristovao Canhavato - Tree of Life

Another exhibition that I went to recently was about African art in the British Museum. Cristovao Canhavato and his crew took my breath away with their work. From far away it looked like a tree but when I came closer it was made out of guns. What a surprise...? The piece reflects the society in Mozambique - people still secretly owned weapons since the war in 1976 and the artists could only get them for exchange of bicycles, sewing machines, etc. Another piece is called the Throne of Weapons, which I think represents the country's forceful government. Both of these works revolve around the recycling of old, disused technology - guns in this case. I would also like to look at recycling objects to create my own pieces of work, perhaps something that represents our dependency on technology.

image credit britishmuseum.org