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FIND YOUR PIECE
...on the globe
 
One World, Many Interdependent Peaces  

The colours between places on these geopolitical globes show the simple minded creatures who made it; lines drawn in the sand, through the forests, seas that say 'us and them'; 'mine and yours'. Often these lines and names of places are a hangover from colonial exploits.

Since these colours were printed in 1976, Yugoslavia has broken up, Czech and Slovakia and Senegal and Gambia parted ways, Burma became Myanmar, Palestine declared independence from Israel (without much effect), Germany took down their wall, the USSR is now just R etc. The colours and shapes of our imagination change according to our whim, need or greed.

We need the ground beneath our feet; we've evolved to find comfort in familiar landscapes: the way the light falls, the change of seasons, the local flora and fauna, the smells, how our species has shaped it all with buildings and monuments – 'knowing the streets like the back of our hand'. The place 'home' is imprinted in our minds and yet, these tin globes – the whole thing – represent our one home floating through an endless uninhabitable cosmos.

The Oceans and the atmosphere of gas we breathe demonstrate how this world is utterly connected and interdependent. There is no 'our air' or 'our water'. Fish caught in Scotland were spawned in Norway, so whose fish are they? Japan's Fukushima radiation is everyone's problem, and so is the CO2 that I emit and the single use plastic I magic away into landfill.

Because I'm a pragmatic romantic, I don't endorse these fictional borders that make World Piece the pop art it is. I dream of a world where all humans are as free as the birds to migrate and explore without fear, and even receive a familial welcome wherever we go.

There are now five globes in the World Piece project (seen here). This Third World Piece Globe (featured on this page) was made by toy maker Chad Valley in 1976 (same year as me). Toys are hopefully made to fuel the imagination; they are tools for experimentation and learning. They are transient in the life of a child and usually expendable. The world their educational toy represents has also become the expendable plaything of childish demigods who revel in Earth's resources and her other inhabitants. Seven billion human stories (and counting) light up, as the light of a million other species flicker out. World Peace means peace for all species.

My dream for utopia is a life of play and responsible experimentation and this is what I work for in my art every day.

World Piece Maker Shop
 
World Piece Third Globe
 
World Piece Third Globe
 
World Piece Third Globe
 
 
 
World Piece for peace-work...  
For all the reasons above I support Tree Sisters. Their approach involves natural forest restoration and local resilience witha special focus on supporting women. You can read more about the Tree Sisters strategy here, and it is good.

At least one tree will be planted for anything bought on this shop.
Tree Sisters
  Protecting and restoring the environment contributes to peace; it is peace work… I always felt that our work was not simply about planting trees. It was about inspiring people to take charge of their environment, the system that governed them, their lives and their future. – Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 2004

About your host and World Piece Maker: Henrik G Dahle

Artist, activist and writer. I'm finishing my book and sending World Piece out into the world from my home / studio bus (interior pictured above). I'm currently parked up in Bristol, England.

I'm a big fan of world peace and despite the growing polarisation, nationalism and inequality that challenges the local peace and stability I've grown up with, I've not given up on it. I still (perhaps naively) dream of utopia.

I hope it doesn't sound like a cynical promotion, but my little ideas for achieving real world peace can be found in my forthcoming book. I have summarised some ideas though, and they can be found with the POEM. This project is my little advert for World Peace.

 
 

That's me there...

Henrik G Dahle (me)
The path to World Piece (Honestly, I'm trying to raise money to finish my book).  

Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it? In the months leading up to Christmas a few years ago I found the cupboard where I keep all my money was bare. I'd heard about a guy who made thousands of pounds standing on a street corner selling soft toys for £2 each and he'd made thousands. What could I sell that would also tally with my conscience? (Plastic fabric soft toys made half way around the world would not). The first idea was a box of Absolutely Nothing. The film and the product (and the Institute) was fun to make but wasn't the money spinner I had in mind; people aren't quite ready for Absolutely Nothing.

A few years later I picked up a rusty globe at a car boot sale / flea market (pictured below), and it hung around my flat for some time waiting for inspiration. Again, another Christmas with a bare cupboard was looming, calling me to refill it. This time I would plunder the globe for its resources and World Piece was born. World Piece it seems, really is 'what people want', and the idea took off. Here's the first advert I made for World Piece.

Absolutely Nothing

Box of Absolutely Nothing

First World Piece all hemispheres  

The Rough 'World Piece One Globe'
Ear Studs

First World Piece  


A few items remain from World Piece One and will appear in the shop later.

Now I come with a more polished offering in World Piece Two, Three, FOUR and FIVE. All shinier globes and I'm giving a little more care to curating the pieces – softening the corners, presenting them with redesigned packaging and a rewritten poem.

(Absolutely Nothing will be returning to this shop soon, so I'll be selling Absolutely Nothing and the World, which sounds like good capitalism).


 
World Piece Sample World Piece Sample World Piece Back Sample
World Piece Sample World Piece Sample
 
Above: The original advert I made for World Piece
World Piece Globe


 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

More, or less coming soon