1,300 come to Art the Arms Fair
Art the Arms Fair had over 1,300 visitors
More than 1,300 people attended Art the Arms Fair, the award-winning partly-Quaker-founded arts project which challenged the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair this month.
Emily Graham, one of the organisers, told the Friend that the auction on 13 September ‘went really well. We sold the Anish Kapoor print for £2,000 and several other pieces including a print by Shepard Fairey, creator of the “Hope” posters for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Many of the people who came over the two weeks had never heard about the arms fair before.’
Over seventy artists took part in the event at Maverick Projects in Peckham, including: Anish Kapoor, Zehra Doğan, Ralph Ziman, undercover arms-fair artist Jill Gibbon, and Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson. One participating artist is thought to have been offered a space at the Imperial War Museum.
Anish Kapoor said: ‘I support Art the Arms Fair in their mission to challenge the multibillion pound business that is the arms trade with its conscience-free sale of barbaric weaponry to all corners. The human, environmental and spiritual cost of this vile trade is a shameful legacy that we all carry. We must therefore stand up and oppose this trade.’
The local Bradfield Youth Club in Peckham also contributed a sculpture to remember young Londoners lost to knife crime. Daniel Campbell, the centre manager of the Bradfield Youth Club, said: ‘We are extremely proud of our young people for taking part. The Club has lost a young person to knife crime, so this sits deep with all of us.’
