World Premiere Jet Exhibit Redefines the Legacy of War
Artist Ralph Ziman's dazzling multimedia exhibit The MiG-21 Project opens June 21
SEATTLE, April 14, 2025—The Museum of Flight’s major new exhibit for 2025 opens June 21 with the world premiere of The MiG-21 Project, South African artist Ralph Ziman’s 5-year, multidisciplinary project transforming a decommissioned Cold War era, Soviet-designed MiG-21 fighter jet into a stunning work of art, entirely covered in tens of millions of colorful glass beads. The re-imagined jet turns an icon of violence into a symbol of resilience and collaboration, and is the centerpiece of the exhibit, which will be on view until January 26, 2026.
“The aim of The MiG-21 Project,” said Ziman, “is to take the most mass-produced supersonic fighter aircraft and to turn it from a machine of war into something that looks beautiful and changes the meaning of it.”
The MiG-21 Project is the culmination of Ziman’s Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy, a 12-year project inspired by the artist’s experiences growing up in Apartheid South Africa and realized by teams on two continents—Ziman and his team in Los Angeles in collaboration with Southern African beadwork artisans. Together they addressed the impact of the arms trade on global conflicts and the continued militarization of police forces around the world, and responded by turning symbols of oppression into works of art that inspire a reflection on history and current conflicts.
The exhibit marks the first public display of the reclaimed jet, and three rooms of the Museum’s Special Exhibits Gallery have been transformed to visualize the depth of the The MiG-21 Project and the Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy. The gallery experience includes original artwork, Afrofuturistic flight suits designed and crafted by the artist and his team, large scale photographs, videos, and interactives. New materials from The Museum of Flight detail the history of MiG-21 aircraft, the Cold War, and how other military aircraft have been repurposed for civilian duties.
The Museum of Flight will also offer special programming and family events in conjunction with the exhibit. The exhibit is free for Museum Members and included with admission.
Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy
Ziman’s collaborative Trilogy blends history, social awareness, cultural appreciation, and the healing power of creativity by celebrating the rich tradition of Southern African beadwork, traditionally used by indigenous South African people to communicate cultural and social messages through intricate patterns and colors.
In the first part of the Trilogy, The AK-47 Project (2013 - 2017), Ziman worked with skilled artisan collaborators from South Africa and Zimbabwe to create replicas of AK-47 assault rifles using only glass beads and wire. After decades of use by anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements in the struggle against oppressive regimes, the powerful weapon has come to be associated with liberation and self-determination.
In part two, The Casspir Project (2015 - 2018), Ziman and his team used hand-beaded panels to transform an 11-ton Apartheid-era Casspir armored police vehicle into a symbol of peace. The beaded vehicle, SPOEK 1, was taken to former Apartheid hotspot Soweto, South Africa, a township outside of Johannesburg, where the 1976 uprising against Apartheid began. In Soweto, The Casspir Project team worked with local residents and staged a dramatic series of photographs inspired by photojournalism undertaken there in the 1980s-90s. SPOEK 1 was featured on-site at the Museum’s 2024 Jet Blast Bash.
Finally, The MiG-21 Project expanded Ziman’s vision to an even larger format, and the fearsome fighter jet’s surface became an artistic canvas to inspire thought, reflection and imagination. Check out a brief video here.
Social responsibility is central to Ziman’s artistic practice. The experience of growing up in Apartheid era South Africa motivated Ziman to abandon a successful career as a commercial photographer and filmmaker in the 1990s to create a body of work that would educate people on the history of Apartheid, global arms trading, and trophy hunting. He works with artisans from Zimbabwe and women from South Africa's Mpumalanga province renowned for their beadwork. This collaborative act of reclamation not only recontextualizes a historical instrument of terror but also honors traditional craftsmanship, fostering dialogue on cultural memory and societal healing.
Artist Ralph Ziman
Ralph Ziman was born in 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, Calif. His practice is motivated by a sense of social responsibility toward global politics. Using imagery that is at once vivid and dark, he comments on serious issues such as human rights, life under Apartheid, and the arms trade. His work extends across a variety of media, including film, public intervention, sculpture, and installation. Ziman’s artwork has been exhibited by galleries in Europe, Africa and the United States.
“I grew up in South Africa in the dark days of Apartheid,” Ziman explained. “It was a time of bigotry, a time when the government exploited divides and turned people against each other. It was a time when the police became highly militarized and violent. My art tells of that history because I see aspects of it repeating itself around the world. By repurposing symbols of violence into icons of peace, I use art as a way to come to terms with my own past. My work is a colorful reimagining of what I encountered, as well as a call for change.”
Why Beads?
“There is no Africa without beads, it connects,” said bead artisan Thenjiwe Chinedo.
“If you go deep within Africa, you find it’s the one thing. So that’s why you see beads are all over.”
Glass beadwork has been vital to indigenous Southern African artistic traditions for hundreds of years. For the Ndebele people of Southern Africa, beadwork has always been an expression of cultural identity.
Describing his life in South Africa, Ralph Ziman remembers seeing hand-beaded objects and animal sculptures being sold by the side of the road. “It was really looked down upon,” Ziman recalls, “People would say it’s made for tourists—it’s rubbish. I always felt it was given short shrift, because the amount of skill and talent to do the beadwork is just phenomenal.” For the Weapons of Mass Production Trilogy, “the idea was to elevate beadwork to the status it deserves. We’re going to make things out of beads that’s going to take people’s breath away.”
Image above: The MiG-21 Project beaded MiG-21 fighter jet in a staged photo. Photo courtesy The MiG-21 Project.
Image below: The MiG-21 Project - "Ruacana Raider Returns," staged photo of woman wearing custom regalia in front of the beaded MiG-21 fighter. Photo courtesy The MiG-21 Project.
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