The MiG-21 Project

The MiG-21 Project Origin Story

Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy
The MiG-21 Project is the culmination of the Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy, an ambitious project that began in 2013. It was inspired by Ziman’s experiences growing up in Apartheid South Africa and realized by teams on two continents—Ziman and his team in Los Angeles in collaboration with Southern African beadwork artisans. Together they addressed the impact of the arms trade on global conflicts and the continued militarization of police forces around the world, and responded by turning symbols of oppression into works of art that inspire a reflection on history and current conflicts.

In the first part of the Trilogy, The AK-47 Project (2013-2017) Ziman worked with skilled artisan collaborators from South Africa and Zimbabwe to create replicas of AK-47 assault rifles using only glass beads and wire. Two of the replicas will be on display at the Museum in The MiG-21 Project exhibit.

In part two, The Casspir Project (2015 - 2018), Ziman and his team used hand-beaded panels to transform an 11-ton Apartheid-era Casspir armored police vehicle into a symbol of peace. The beaded vehicle, SPOEK 1, was taken to former Apartheid hotspot Soweto, South Africa, a township outside of Johannesburg, where the 1976 uprising against Apartheid began. In Soweto, The Casspir Project team worked with local residents and staged a dramatic series of photographs inspired by photojournalism undertaken there in the 1980s-90s. SPOEK 1 was featured on-site at the Museum’s 2024 Jet Blast Bash.

Finally, The MiG-21 Project expanded Ziman’s vision to an even larger format, and the fearsome fighter jet’s surface became an artistic canvas to inspire thought, reflection and imagination. 

To complement the beaded jet, the project team also created custom regalia inspired by a blend of African prints and fabrics, flight suits, helmets, uniforms, and other pilot paraphernalia. The goal was to create an alternative reality—one where a brightly colored, beaded fighter airplane is flown, serviced, and maintained by a playful and whimsical re-imagination of a flight crew. This vision was brought to life as a series of imagined characters, such as a military officer, a pilot, flight deck crew, and ground crew. Examples of the regalia will be part of The MiG-21 Project exhibit. Created in collaboration with costume designers from the film industry, each costume is distinct yet cohesive, contributing to a unified aesthetic. Fabrics and findings from downtown Los Angeles were sourced, incorporating repurposed parts salvaged from the MiG itself, further reinforcing the connection between the aircraft and its bespoke, artistic regalia.

Collaboration and Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is central to Ziman’s artistic practice. The experience of growing up in Apartheid-era South Africa motivated Ziman to abandon a successful career as a commercial photographer and filmmaker in the 1990s to create a body of work that would educate people on the history of Apartheid, global arms trading, and trophy hunting. 

Ziman works with artisans from Zimbabwe and women from South Africa's Mpumalanga province renowned for their beadwork. This collaborative act of reclamation not only recontextualizes a historical instrument of terror but also honors traditional craftsmanship, fostering dialogue on cultural memory and societal healing.

Artist Ralph Ziman

Ralph Ziman was born in 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, Calif. His practice is motivated by a sense of social responsibility toward global politics. Using imagery that is at once vivid and dark, he comments on serious issues such as human rights, life under Apartheid, and the arms trade. His work extends across a variety of media, including film, public intervention, sculpture, and installation. Ziman’s artwork has been exhibited by galleries in Europe, Africa and the United States.

“I grew up in South Africa in the dark days of Apartheid,” Ziman explained. “It was a time of bigotry, a time when the government exploited divides and turned people against each other. It was a time when the police became highly militarized and violent. My art tells of that history because I see aspects of it repeating itself around the world. By repurposing symbols of violence into icons of peace, I use art as a way to come to terms with my own past. My work is a colorful reimagining of what I encountered, as well as a call for change.”

Ralph Ziman Website

Why Beads?

“There is no Africa without beads, it connects. If you go deep within Africa, you find it’s the one thing. So that’s why you see beads are all over.” – Weapons of Mass Production bead artisan Thenjiwe Pretty Chinedo.

Glass beadwork has been vital to indigenous Southern African artistic traditions for hundreds of years. For the Ndebele people of Southern Africa, beadwork has become an expression of cultural identity. Describing his life in South Africa, Ralph Ziman remembers seeing hand-beaded objects and animal sculptures being sold by the side of the road. “It was really looked down upon,” Ziman recalls, “People would say it’s made for tourists—it’s rubbish. I always felt it was given short shrift, because the amount of skill and talent to do the beadwork is just phenomenal.” For the Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy, “the idea was to elevate beadwork to the status it deserves. We’re going to make things out of beads that’s going to take people’s breath away.”

The Second Lives of Military Aircraft

Like the beadwork altering the meaning and intent of AK-47s, the Casspir, and the MiG-21 from tools of oppression to symbols of peace, many aircraft have historically shed their military purpose for second lives. Humanitarian-focused duties are often central to the roles of repurposed aircraft. For example, military aircraft like the Museum’s Boeing B-17 bomber have been used for fighting forest fires, other planes transitioned to search and rescue missions, doing aerial mapping, undertaking aeronautical research, and spraying crops. The MiG-21 Project exhibit will detail dozens of repurposed planes.