Art the Arms Fair hosts successful auction

'£15,000 Raised by Art the Arms Fair in its recent auction.'

Art the Arms Fair (AAF), the partly-Quaker-founded arts exhibition, has been hailed a success, amassing £15,000 in total sales. The award-winning event, hosted every two years to coincide with Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), culminated with a private view party featuring a performance piece by artist Sharon Rose and attracting more than 150 attendees. Carmen Wilson, from AAF, told the Friend that Jeremy Deller’s William Morris Was Right prints sold out in eight hours. Meanwhile, the ‘long-standing and respected UK activist banner-maker Ed Hall made a custom “dED” banner for us to keep’.

The exhibition also saw a ‘first-time exhibited piece by artist Zedsy, (not for auction), and a Vivienne Westwood final print, double signed’ which sold, she said.

Other artists to contribute to the exhibition, called ‘We Ain’t dED Yet’, included Darren Cullen, Gavin Turk, Kyle Goen and KennardPhillips (a collaboration between Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps). Quaker artist Jill Gibbon, who has spent several years infiltrating DSEI in disguise, also contributed work.

This year’s art was sold to support Demilitarise Education (dED) which co-hosted the event. Carmen Wilson paid tribute to Ksenya Blokhina, an AAF founder, and Zayna Al-Saleh, the curator, ‘for making this event a success’.

In 2018 AAF was awarded The Observer and NESTA ‘New Radicals’ Award. The fair was co-founded in 2017 by Sam Walton, who previously worked for Quaker Peace & Social Witness.

Previous years have seen contributions from Banksy, with his Civilian Drone Strike selling for £205,000 in aid of Campaign Against Arms Trade and Reprieve.

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