Luke Evans explains blowing things up with a home-made bomb in beautiful new project Shockwaves

Date
17 June 2016

We rather envy the life of Luke Evans, beavering away in a secluded studio in the countryside, making the most of the space and solitude by working on a series of ever-ambitious projects and erecting a pole dancing pole there to top it all off. His latest project is undoubtedly his most explosive. Shockwave is a series of images that feels eerily quiet and stately, especially considering their naissance: each piece is the product of exploding clay using a home-made bomb device. Luke has kindly explained the project below, and it sounds like one of his most fun yet.

“In Shockwave, I capture an explosion by detonating a homemade bomb inside clay, and then pouring black plaster into the cavity inside. It’s left to set, then the clay is pulled away from the cast. I had the idea when I was working on my last project, Xero. Xero was about capturing electrical energy as a print, and that naturally lead me into something more three dimensional, playing with the same idea of capturing energy. Explosives appealed to me because I liked the idea of using a destructive process to make something new, as well as turning negative space into positive space. I work a lot in photography, so maybe that’s something my brain’s used to thinking about. And hey, it’s an excuse to blow shit up!

At the time, I didn’t know the first thing about explosives or how the project might work, so after a lot of convincing I managed to get a contact within the MOD (Ministry of Defence). I proposed the method to them, then between us we drew up a plan and a safe explosive recipe. There’s a massive grey area here that for obvious reasons I can’t really talk about, but all I can say is that you’d be surprised with what you can do with things lying around the house.

One of the biggest difficulties was finding a material that would be able to house an explosion, not collapse in on itself, and also allow the casting material to set. After a bunch of testing, clay and plaster worked the best. The clay couldn’t be too dry or else it’d shatter, or too wet because it would collapse. It also had to be really thoroughly beaten to remove any gaps which meant that air from the explosion could escape. Finally, the plaster had to be made with a polymer base which repelled the water inside the clay.

The detonated bomb and wires are left in the clay, which is why the final objects have wires sticking out. After figuring the process out, it was just a case of experimenting. The variations come from the difference in size and shape of the explosive. Some would rip the clay apart sideways, others would shoot upwards. What’s more dangerous than an explosion going off, is one that doesn’t. If the firing mechanism failed, it meant that I’d have to dig through the clay to retrieve it without it going off. So far I haven’t had one accident!"

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Above

Luke Evans: Shockwave

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.