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Arizona Oddities

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ArtValley of the Sun
Home›Art›Gun Sculpture of Phoenix

Gun Sculpture of Phoenix

By Sam Lowe
July 28, 2009
2653
4
40 guns small

Robert John Miley created this sculpture with old firearms. Photo Credit: Sam Lowe

PHOENIX – It took Robert John Miley more than a decade to turn guns into art. The result is a sculpture that rises above a small park at the corner of Roosevelt Street and Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Miley spent 11 years acquiring the land, material and manpower needed to create the work. The statue, which resembles a man lifting his arms skyward, is made of steel and weighs 17,000 pounds. Four tons of the material came from guns that were once used in the commission of violent acts.

The guns were confiscated by law enforcement agencies across Arizona, then donated to Miley when they heard about his project. They were melted down and recast, some of them  back into the shape of guns that make up the base of the statue. Miley used students and criminals as his work force. The youngsters came from neighborhood schools; the convicts were members of chain gangs who volunteered to help. “The sculpture became a symbol of how we can transform anything into something good,” Miley said.

His work was not immediately accepted. One fellow artist noted that it “looks like Gumby,” but he also commended the piece later.

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Tagsartcrimephoenix

4 comments

  1. Peter Jones 2 August, 2009 at 03:01 Reply

    It may look like a man raising his hands in surrender, or Gumby, but it also looks like the barrel sight on a rifle. Did R.J. Miley give a name to this sculpture?

  2. Sam Colt 20 April, 2014 at 07:49 Reply

    What a pathetic cringing sclupture. Arms raised in surrender, indeed.

    Pack this “artist” back off to Massachusetts or England or under whatever fearful gun-phobic rock he crawled out from under…

    • Molly Pitcher 8 August, 2016 at 08:17 Reply

      He’s from Phoenix.

  3. SaraD 31 July, 2014 at 07:41 Reply

    I don’t see this sculpture as “arms raised in surrender”. I see it as something like the Phoenix rising from the ashes – or, in this case, a clean, shining form rising upward from the remnants of the tools of crime. To emphasize, it’s not a statement about guns, it’s a statement about *crime*, and there is nothing cringing about it as it escapes in a stretch toward the sun. Sleek and shiny modernism isn’t really my preferred style of art, but this works for me. I think Mr. Miley did just fine.

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