The Arab Spring

 A few more ideas along the lines of the 'False Flags' series in that it's inspired by the political situation in the Middle East.
After the optimistic start to 2011 and the domino toppling of long standing dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, etc and the death of Colonel Gadaffi, it seemes the Middle East was about to enter a new phase in its political history where the people were to be allowed their say and democracy would replace tyranny. Fast forward to almost two years on and the optimism has been replaced with despair and the old dictatorships have been replaced with more of the same; power hungry administrations, bent on imposing their will on the populaitons by any means possible.....usually violent means.
The term Arab Spring refers to the time of year in 2011 when these revolutions began. It also has connotations of a well bringing new life. I've used it here as a negative pun relating the 'spring' to the firing mechanism of the ubiquitous AK47 so readily seen in news footage from the Middle East. Here I'm symbolising the turn around of events that now favours the dictators and tyrants again, whilst the people suffer, again.
I would like to make a sculpture of a full size AK47 using real Kalashnikov springs but it would cost a small fortune. One day maybe.

 

 

 

At the moment these are tracing paper and paper printout overlays and collages. When I get the time, I'll put them into Photoshop and make a better job of them.