Ralph Ziman has always been a pacifist — so much so that he became a conscientious objector and left his home country of South Africa to avoid being conscripted into the military.

So, the idea of the artist dedicating more than a decade to a project centered around weapons and vehicles associated with violence, might seem counterintuitive. But through his Weapons of Mass Production trilogy, Ziman has taken some of the deadliest machines of war and transformed them into something beautiful.

The trilogy — which began with The AK-47 Project and The Casspir Project — now concludes with The MiG-21 Project, which made its world premiere at The Museum of Flight in Seattle in late June.

Ziman began The AK-47 Project in 2013, creating replicas of assault rifles using glass beads and wire with artisan collaborators from South Africa and Zimbabwe. They completed the project in 2017. The Casspir Project began in 2015, with the artists transforming an 11-ton Apartheid-era Casspir armored police vehicle using hand-beaded panels. This was completed in 2018.

For the finale in the trilogy, Ziman expanded his vision — he and his team covered a 51-foot long, decommissioned Cold War-era Soviet-designed MiG-21 fighter jet in approximately 70 million glass beads. It took about five years to complete.

Close-up views of the transformed MiG-21 fighter jet.

Photo courtesy of The Museum of Flight

The goal behind Weapons of Mass Production is to take these symbols of violence and turn them into icons of peace. After constantly seeing photos and videos of AK-47s on the news in South Africa, Ziman had the idea of doing this reversal of the arms trade, in which they would create beautiful non-lethal AK-47s in Africa, and export them to the rest of the world.

Ziman wants his project to get people talking about how widespread the issues associated with these weapons can be. He says about 40% of all the corruption in the world goes through the arms trade, pointing out that while some countries seem like they don’t have money for schooling or health care, they always manage to have armies.

“I really want to talk about the proliferation of weapons around the world,” Ziman says. “And the most dangerous weapon of all time, the AK-47, and how many people it’s killed. Some people estimate 100 million or 500 million people.” He also notes that the Casspir, a police vehicle that shocked people when it debuted in South African townships to intimidate anti-Apartheid demonstrators, now appears on U.S. streets — most recently in Los Angeles during protests against ICE raids.

And with about 12,000 produced, the MiG-21 is the most mass-manufactured supersonic fighter in the world.

Weapons of Mass Production has been a way for Ziman to come to terms with his past growing up in South African Apartheid. He says his work is a colorful reimagining of what he has encountered in his life, as well as a call for change.

“I think it’s even more relevant now than it was maybe five, 10 years ago when I started it,” he says. “Because who would think we were back where we are? You’ve got a government in this country kicking out people who’ve lived here for 30 years and haven’t done anything wrong, and bringing in white South Africans and saying that these are an oppressed minority, which is not true.”

Along with its anti-war message, Weapons of Mass Production highlights the glass beadwork that has been a part of Indigenous Southern African artistic traditions for centuries. Ziman began working with artisans from Zimbabwe and Ndebele women from South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, who are renowned for their beadwork, more than 12 years ago — during The AK-47 Project. These artists have formed Ziman’s core team since then.

And with him based in Los Angeles and the bead artisans in South Africa, the logistics of the project weren’t easy — especially once Covid hit. Ziman says he used to go back to South Africa four or five times a year, but since the pandemic, he hasn’t been back. Despite not being physically together, the team made it work, even with the nine-hour time difference.

“The artisans, the team, they stepped up, and they run the studio in Johannesburg, and they’ve just done an amazing job. It’s been a wonderful experience,” Ziman says. “I’ve really loved working with them. I’ve learnt a lot. And we’re kind of like family. We’ve made sure that the kids all get a really great education, and we take care of the health care and everything. And they’ve, in turn, stepped up and really done an amazing job.”

Ziman says they’ve been trying to bring the bead artists over to the U.S. since 2019, but haven’t been able to get visas. And now, with the political situation here, there’s no way — at least for now — to bring even one of the artists over.

Despite this bittersweet and heartbreaking situation, Ziman says the artists will be present in Seattle — the museum gift shop is selling pieces from each of their individual collections.

In addition to the MiG-21 on display in The Museum of Flight’s aviation pavilion, the exhibit also includes a gallery featuring Afrofuturistic flight suits designed by Ziman and his team, large-scale photographs, videos, and interactive activities.

Afrofuturistic flight suits designed and crafted by artist Ralph Ziman and his team.

Photo courtesy of The Museum of Flight

While an art exhibit at a museum dedicated to air and space may seem unusual, Museum of Flight CEO Matt Hayes says the MiG-21 will give them a new way to start conversations.

“History tends to do that, and you combine history and art, and you can get even that much more relevance in a deeper conversation,” he says.

Hayes adds that another rabbit hole they went down during this project was looking at the second, third and even fourth lives of aircraft and other artifacts. That’s where people learn stories about life, and how an aircraft can touch someone — whether it be the ones who “made (an aircraft), flew it, fixed it, loaded the bombs on it, stood under the bombs when they were unloaded, whether they’re astronauts or the people that are protesting that space flight” — that’s what the museum is about, he says.

“If we were just talking about the airplanes, we’d be saying how high this MiG went, how many machine guns it had, what type of engine it had, and that’s not the stories we want to tell,” Hayes says. “And thankfully, we have artists like Ralph and other people who can bring stories out in a completely different and powerful, powerful way.”

Cody Othoudt, lead exhibit developer at the museum, adds, “We have created an experience that we believe will engage a wide variety of audiences, and we’re excited to bring them in. An early quote from Ralph when we started this project mentioned creating something that will blow people away and inspire opportunities for conversation around complex histories, and we believe we’ve achieved that with The MiG-21 Project.”

He says striking that balance between an art show and one of their traditional exhibits was an exciting challenge — and that working with Ziman and his team, who were in Los Angeles and South Africa leading up to the opening, was an incredible experience. It took consistent collaboration, clear communication, and creative problem solving from both teams to bring the MiG-21 aircraft to Seattle.

Ziman says that the way they were able to get this project done, and bring it here, is a lesson many people can take to heart when it comes to connecting with those who are different from us.

“If we can get things done across the world — different languages, different cultures — Americans, South Africans, English people, Latinos, and people from South Africa, Zimbabwe, rural, urban life — and this is the result, this is where we can do that. We work together,” he says.

The MiG-21 Project is on view through January 26, 2026. You can find more information here.