Indexer
The Knife Angel is a remarkable work of art that has a profoundly important message to get across.
It was created by Alfie Bradley at the British Ironwork Centre in Shropshire, England, and it consists largely of bladed weapons that have been collected by UK police forces from knife amnesties. There are around 100,000 such pieces in this work, including penknives, flick knives, samurai swords and machetes. All the blades were blunted and sterilised before being incorporated into the Angel.
The Knife Angel has been seen by many thousands of people during its tour of the United Kingdom. The photo seen here was taken outside Chester Cathedral during its month-long stay in November 2016, this being only one of many venues during its long, slow tour of the country.
The object of the exercise is to bring home to people the terrible consequences of knife crime, which has taken the lives of many people in this country, most of them being young people who had their whole lives ahead of them but were lost to their families and friends due to a moment of anger on the part of another young person who was carrying a knife.
The Knife Angel seek to raise awareness of the problem in communities across the country and get people to question the sense of carrying a knife which could lead to yet another tragic death
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Have you seen the Knife Angel?
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No
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Question of
Is knife crime a problem where you live?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you think that the Knife Angel is an effective way of drawing attention to the problem?
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The knife problem would be a gun problem just like in the US if the UK allowed for people to own guns. Basically, the root of the problem is that people should value the lives of others more instead of looking to murder them.
great work of interesting art!
I think that we see hate in so many forms now. we have a gun violence problem in the US but no or much smaller knife violence.
We have a world that needs to change.
That is an outstanding piece of artwork. I hope it succeeds in cutting down on stabbings and deaths. We have more of a problem with guns in the U.S.
It has made a huge impression wherever it has gone during its journey so far since 2017. It is planned to continue its tour until 2021.
This is an effective awareness drive specially since this work of art travels from place to place.
That is a really amazing work of art and I think a great way to draw attention to the problems of knife crimes
A very innovative and different way of getting the message across. Here in Canada and the US though I think that a Pistol or revolver or machine gun angel would be more effective as the gun laws are still absurd in controlling guns…
That would indeed be an interesting development. I wonder if anyone is giving it serious thought?
Incredible, I think all major cities should have one of these.
I live in south west england but didn’t know about the Knife Angel. What an amazing way to bring the horror of knife crime to the attention of our people.
I don’t know what the timetable is for the Knife Angel. I made a mistake in my piece by giving the date as November 2016 when it should have been 2019! – I took the photo last Friday. It will be at Chester until the end of this week before moving on, and I am sure that it will be displayed somewhere in your area at some stage.
I saw this on the news the other day. Knife crime seems to be such a huge problem these days. I think this is an excellent way of spreading the message.