Adam Grinovich

"Bullet in the brain"

USA / Sweden, 2010

Necklace

Materials:

Iron, Thread

Dimension in cm:

12 x 8 x 1

Artist Statement:

From the first time I heard about this

project I had a very hard time making a

connection between war, specifically the

ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and

contemporary jewelry. At times I even felt

that to participate would be rather offensive

to the people who are involved directly in

the conflict, or any war for that matter. I

came upon a helmet, most likely from the

Second World War, bearing a bullet hole at

a second hand shop. The moment I picked

it up I was overwhelmed with the idea that

someone had died wearing this helmet, I

was overwhelmed by thinking about the

millions of helmets from all different wars

that must have similar evidence. It was at

that moment that I could make a concrete

connection between conflict and the death

on an individual. I found my justification

for this project though struggling with what

to do with the helmet. For me, jewelry

embodies a kind of immortality... the ability

to stretch a single moment out into infinity.

A wedding ring illustrates this perfectly; it

takes the bond created by two people in one

moment and extends it beyond the life

spans of the individuals involved. It is also

a manifestation of responsibility, to the

people involved, to the tradition of

marriage. It was my goal to take

responsibility for this moment where a

soldier was killed, to attempt to separate the

moment and pull it into infinity, to take

responsibility for that choice as a maker.

It might be a stretch to link the Second

World War and the conflict in the Middle

East, it might be naïve. I do not believe that

to be true. For me all war, all conflict comes

down to the same thing; individuals killing

each other. “each wound is my wound, each

death is my death, each pain is my pain, I

am the hangman and the victim, there is

only me, the only one responsible”

-Thomas Hirschhorn-

What was your starting point or your

inspiration for doing this project?

It was my hope to try and bypass a general

feeling of apathy towards war and conflict

in general. I often find it very difficult to

find a personal connection with what I see

on television, or read in the news. In order

to even begin with this project I needed to

find an object or a moment that meant

something to me, that affected me in some

basic way and then work from there.

If you have a personal or other connection

to the exhibition theme? please share it

with us.

I grew up in America; conflict in the Middle

East has been something that I have been

exposed to since I can remember. Even

when the events that took place on the 11th

of September occurred I could remember

feeling very little sympathy or empathy, this

is something that I have struggled to

understand for some time. I have an

extremely hard time to connect emotionally

with an event portrayed by mass media; I

suppose I have a need for genuine

information. Images on the television and

words in a newspaper have a tendency to

numb me; objects have a tendency to

activate me.... Although I chose to work

with an artifact from the Second World War

it was my hope to try and connect all war

and all conflict together, one person killing

another person for some given reason. I

believe for the general public of America

there has always been a universal enemy

when it comes to war. For my grandfather’s

generation it was Germans, for my father it

was Vietnamese, for me the Middle East.

These people become nameless, faceless

"bad guys" It was my goal to try and find a

way to skew this "bad guy" perception

What were the main reasons for choosing

the materials, shapes or technique in your

work?

With this project and my work in general I

try to make it as easy as possible for the

viewer, to avoid any sort of leap in logic. In

all of my work I attempt to blur a line

between found and created objects. With

this piece I really wanted to do as little as

possible, so that each choice that I made

became as important as possible. Really the

main element of the piece is the cutting,

done with a flame torch. The idea was to

affect the helmet with a similar force and

brutality as the bullet. I had a steelworker

cut the helmet for me; the shape I decided

but he changed it quite a bit while cutting.

It might be a little selfish but I need an

element of surprise, or a definitive moment

when I work in order to keep me going.

What kind of feeling you wish the viewers

will get from your work?

Sympathy, or empathy, I'm not sure which

one exactly. I would like a viewer to get the

feeling that something has happened, in

this case both that a man was killed, and

that I destroyed/manipulated the evidence

of that. For this project I really thought

about the idea of responsibility. The

responsibility of the soldier, of the maker,

of the viewer, and ultimately of the wearer

If you could give your Jewelry to an

important figure in the Middle East who

will he/she be? and why?

I must be honest here and say that I do not

do a very good job of following current

events, and know very little of the key

figures in the Middle East. If there is

someone who is strong communicating

with people on a very basic level I suppose I

would like him/her to have it