Inspiration: Explosive

 All of my halloween hazards (so far!) are inspired by the international safety symbols but explosive required a slightly different approach.  It's not easy to just show those little exploding pieces in black and have the symbol be clear because it's actually quite a detailed symbol with irregular edges.  The lines radiating out though really gave me something to play with and I decided to make these look like flashes of light using silver lined beads.  I think this makes the piece look really dramatic!

And explosions really should be dramatic!

Well, maybe that isn't true.  There seem to have been a lot of explosions down here this winter.  Probably no more than normal but maybe the local news has been keener to report on them to shift focus from the dreaded C.  With our many miles of beaches, every year potentially unexploded ordnance is uncovered or washed up.  

My favourite story this year was about a local guy who runs Shiver me Timbers a local reclamation yard that has some really cool stuff online but somehow I have never been to visit....  It's on my to do list once the world goes back to normal...  Anyway, he had wanted a sea mine for some time and found one washed up on the beach and rolled it home, where he used it as footstool.  He had however gone through proper channels and it was known that the mine was a dummy mine used in practices, so it was completely safe.  The Royal Navy reclaimed the mine however, although it appears that wasn't exactly the end of the story....

There was a WWII bomb found and exploded in Exeter and a phosphorus flare was blown up at Polhawn Cove just in the last few days...  (Yes, this was posted retrospectively!)

But there is something about explosions.  One of my childhood memories was watching footage of old brick works chimneys being brought down at Stewartby.  If you want to skip to the best view of the explosions though, go to the last minute!  

I guess it isn't surprising that artists like to play with explosions too....  there is something so powerful about them.  One of my favourites is Cai Guo-Quiang with the Ninth Wave and Transient Rainbow being just a couple of his works....  There are many other artists that use explosions though.  Martin Klimas photographs flowers as they explode and the images are so beautiful.  Nick Knight photographs powdered paint explosions, as does Irby Pace, but the two could not be more different in their styles.

Of course, there is a tragic and sad side of explosions, but I just don't really want to go there right now...  Not really...  But, Hayat Nazer built a sculpture of a woman from rubble left from the Beirut port explosion last year.  It's a beautiful piece.

If you want to have a look at some pictures on pinterest then click here!