A version of this article originally appeared on The Creators Project Netherlands.
Machetepuzzle, Art van Triest. Images courtesy the artist
This article was originally published on January 12, 2015 but we think it still rocks!
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Usually when you see a jigsaw puzzle, your first impulse is to try and solve it. But what if putting a puzzle together involves breaking the law? That’s the idea behind the sculptures of Dutch artist Art van Triest, who uses a water jet cutter to divide illicit weapons into interlocking pieces.
“According to Dutch law, it is illegal to have any object that can be mistaken for a weapon, even when that weapon it is no longer useable,” Triest explained to The Creators Project. “As an artist I think it is interesting to create work that embodies a kind of friction, an object that is at once a toy and a weapon.”
Puzzluger
For his Kalashnipuzzle, van Triest had to have the weapon delivered to a friend in Germany, where it’s legal to possess such weapons under the condition that they’re rendered unusable. “For me it is important that the puzzle is made out of an actual weapon. […] Now, it’s a jigsaw puzzle.”
Besides the Kalashnipuzzle, Triest has also made jigsaw puzzles out of an old pistol and a machete. When asked which other type of weapons he wishes to change into puzzles, he replied, “My next puzzle won’t be a weapon at all, I want to use a real human skull.”
Kalashnipuzzle
Click here to visit Art van Triest’s website.
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