Ralph Ziman: ‘I hated apartheid. I hated what it did to people around me’

The white South African-born artist talks to Charlotte Cripps about his 11-ton apartheid-era vehicle and AK-47s adorned with traditional African beadwork, which are surprising exhibits at this week’s San Francisco Tribal and Textile Show

The artist Ralph Ziman is exhibiting an Apartheid-era Casspir vehicle covered in 70 million African beads at the San Francisco Tribal and Textile Art Show (Simone Niamani)

When we think of tribal art, it’s likely to be indigenous cultural artifacts such as wooden masks, dance regalia and sculptural forms. Not AK-47 assault rifles and an 11-ton war machine that have been transformed into symbols of beauty and peace with multi-coloured traditional African beadwork.

But at the popular San Francisco Tribal and Textile Art Show this week, the artist Ralph Ziman is exhibiting apartheid-era weapons from the Casspir Project (2016), a travelling multidisciplinary fine art exhibition that was recently on display in Miami, during Art Basel.

He created the project in response to apartheid’s effects on South African culture, a regime the white South African artist fled aged 19, when he dodged military service in 1981 and moved to LA.