Attractive Weapon (2019)

Sculpture

‘Attractive Weapon’ explores the use of weapons for mass genocide in its lowest forms, from wars to massacres and crimes of violence. Regardless of their rationale and agendas, the main drive is always survival and the need to control.

The use of war weapons is a subject widely explored in works of science fiction. These weapons can be in the form of methods to control people’s minds or erase and meddle with their memories. These works are inspired by reality, or they create fiction that affects reality. For example, science and technology are dedicated to the production of these destructive weapons, to recreate them in the real world by those in power.

The production of weapons and the development of the infrastructure supporting their creation are both important elements and pillars of many sci-fi narratives. Many of these stories imagine scenarios of futuristic discoveries and wars using fictional weapons in the context of conspiracy and struggle. This leads El Feky to question whether reality is inspiring the subjects of sci-fi, or are we instead living in the future and these works are pulling from an ongoing present we are living. In other words, are those stories about things that have not yet happened, or are they a recollection of real events that we remember in our minds and collective memory? Which is more prevalent in narrating history, is it reality or fiction?

In this work, El Feky created a model of one of these futuristic weapons, using the same visual language that those in power use in wars and genocides.