Game Art: Robert Bradford's "Kalashnikovs" (2008-2010)

Robert Bradford creates sculptures of humans, artifacts, and animals from discarded plastic items, mainly toys. Above: a selection of his Kalashnikov guns.

"For a long time now I have preferred to use materials that are not bland i.e. have some kind of history of weathering or use. One day about four years ago out in the studio I was looking into my childrens box of outgrown / discarded toys which happened to be stored in the same building and responded to the random collection of colours shapes and forms they made. I figured that if I could find a way of putting them together to constitute a larger form they would have great potential as larger scale sculpture.
Over the next while I experimented with two other construction methods (which both had their downsides) - before one day about a year ago in frustration I tried putting a screw through one toy and then many others. To my surprise most didn’t crack or shatter and the new series has been largely based around and developed from that fact. Ideally the pieces will work on many levels. The toys themselves interest me in their own right as mini sculptures by unknown and uncredited artists. Mostly I use the toys abstractly as forms with which to build muscle bone or internal or external organs but all types of human pursuits can be referred to and represented through them - things loved or hated - things used and carried as tools etc etc. They provide interest in surface detail whilst making their contribution to the totalities. The toys also provide a moving history of fads and fashions as they pass through the media and our awareness temporarily significant and then forgotten." (Robert Bradford)

Link: Robert Bradford

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti