It’s doubtful whether South Africans, even those who observe the international art scene, will know of sculptor Lin Evola. She appears to have risen above the artist’s humble station, freeing herself from the confines of the high art world and the gallery.
Instead, she has styled herself as a global peace ambassador who trucks around the world erecting sculptures in areas of conflict. These are called peace angels and are crafted from stainless steel and titanium from decommissioned nuclear missile casings and material from street weapons.
This week Evola arrives in South Africa to unveil her latest offering — a maquette called Spirit of Africa that will be the focus of a 4m-high monument destined for the Wilgerspruit Fellowship Centre’s Nobel Laureate Memorial Peace Park.
A statement put up on the Internet about the South African aspect of Evola’s 13 Peace Angel sculptures notes that there are more than four million street weapons in South Africa and that the sculptures serve as “a public service announcement to empower civilians to surrender weapons”.
Punted by the artist as a work of alchemical transmutation, the Peace Angels site contains a “Call to Disarm”. This urges people with illegal weapons to take their arms to their local police station with a request to contact Evola so she can recycle the metal into art.
Peace Angel can be found in five locales in the United States, in Russia, Bosnia, Mexico, Israel, Vietnam, India, China and Iraq.
Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu will unveil the Spirit of Africa at Johannesburg Art Gallery on October 20.
For information call Tel: (011) 725 3130 or see www.peaceangels.org