Crucible

AK47/Crucible was the central and titular work in Coetzee’s posthumous retrospective exhibition held at Everard Read’s Circa Gallery in 2015.

Conceptualised as a ‘peace monument’, its key feature is its composition from melted-down AK47s. The Russian automatic rifle was the emblematic weapon of the armed struggle against the apartheid regime.

The melting down of the rifles to form the shrine-like monument is both a comment on a more hopeful future for the country in the post-apartheid era, and a reference to the sculptural process of melting and refashioning materials into new objects and meanings. 

Artwork courtesy of Apartheid Museum.