Artist Bradford Edwards explains here why he's fascinated by the US marines' zippos found in Vietnam and their slogans. A few classics are mentioned, such as - “If you got this off my dead ass I hope it brings you the same luck it brought me.” Edwards' personal favourite makes reading the article worthwhile in itself. I won't spoil it for you.
Edwards, whose dad flew for the US army in the Vietnam war, also had a show last week in Hanoi with a Vietnamese artist, Nguyen Manh Hung, whose father also flew (in a different direction, naturally) in the same war.
What did they do? Why they built an enormous replica plane of course (crossed between a US F-4 and a Ruski MiG 21). Entirely made out of paper and bamboo it was supposed to be set on fire... "We wanted to make our own version of a fighter jet and burn it in a symbolic effort to exorcise this ‘instrument of destruction’ from our own lives.”
...but, alack, permission was denied for the fire. Rumour has it it's now flying on eBay, though I couldn't find it. Drop us a link in the comments if you can.
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