This Vibrantly Decorated South African Military Vehicle Is Guarding the Entrance to PULSE Miami Beach. Here’s the Story Behind It

During a Miami Art Week somewhat devoid of hard-hitting
political work, Ralph Ziman’s massive
sculpture SPOEK 1 stands out, and not just
because its a massive armored vehicle covered in colorful,
glittering beadwork. The piece, greeting visitors to PULSE Art Fair Miami Beach, is a fully
functional 1981 police Casspir, produced by South Africa for crowd
control purposes during apartheid. It stands as a bold reminder of
the international history of state violence and government
oppression.

“The Casspir was apartheid’s greatest invention. It was built to
sustain bomb explosions and was designed to suppress urban
populations,” Ziman told Artnet News.

A white South African artist, Ziman enlisted a team of some 100
Zimbabwean and South African artisans to create the traditional
beadwork patterning that transforms the Casspir from a symbol of
fear into something bold and beautiful. (Ziman learned to bead
along the way, but his skills still pale into comparison to those
of his team, ten of whom now work for him full time.)

Before bringing the work to the US, the artist drove the project
around South Africa, allowing the local people to engage with the
transformed vehicle, suddenly sapped of its power to inspire fear.
Along the way, he staged photographs of soldiers, decked out in
beaded uniforms and equally embellished weapons.

At PULSE, those photos are on offer, along with the beaded AK47s
and other related works, from Los Angeles’s Rendon Gallery. “The
idea,” said Ziman, “was to make non-lethal weapons in South Africa
that were beautiful and colorful to counter the weapons being made
in the rest of the world and sold to Africa.”

(As a funny sidenote, Ziman actually had to be certified as
an arms dealer to import it.)

SPOEK 1, the colorful vehicle parked at the entrance of
the fair, is also for sale. The price is negotiable, depending
on the client, according to the artist. Essentially, the
presentation at the fair is a smaller version of “Ralph Ziman: The Casspir Project,”
which was on view at the gallery during Frieze LA. You may also
have spotted SPOEK 1 at 1-54 Contemporary African Art
Fair in New York in 2018.

When apartheid ended in 1994, the Casspirs disappeared off the
streets of South Africa. But they’ve since resurfaced around the
world—many were sold to the US during the Iraq War, and then
donated to police forces around the country.

“It’s the only vehicle designed in Africa that’s been exported
to the rest of the world, so we wanted to Africanize and own it,”
Ziman said. He says he was inspired to create SPOEK 1
when he saw news footage of US police force using Casspirs during
the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The whole world has militarized their police force,” Ziman
added. “I think once you put police on top of this [Casspir] with
automatic weapons in a place like Ferguson, they start seeing the
other side as the enemy.”

PULSE Art Fair Miami Beach is on view at Indian Beach Park,
4601 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, December 5–8,
2019.

The post This Vibrantly Decorated South African Military
Vehicle Is Guarding the Entrance to PULSE Miami Beach. Here’s the
Story Behind It appeared first on artnet News.