Ralph Ziman, a South African-born artist internationally recognized for his challenging and controversial installations, has recently completed his most ambitious project to date. The MiG-21 Project art installation featuring a crashed MiG-21 fighter jet. You’ll have a chance to see this stunning piece up close at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. It will be featured on view there until January 26, 2026. Ziman personally purchased and retrieved the aircraft from a storage facility in Florida. Polish air force MiGs had been abandoned there to rust. His vision to turn this hub of warfare, death-toll reporting, and war-making into a budding canvas of beauty and conversation is audacious.
The MiG-21 fighter jet, used in the 1971 war against India, has a rich legacy, with about 12,000 units built over its 70-year history. It was integral to the 1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East. It was pivotal in the Croatian War of Independence during the 1990s. Ziman’s fascination with the aircraft was sparked after learning that it had helped enforce South African apartheid. He thinks this engagement is an essential aspect of its narrative.
To get the MiG-21 back to his Los Angeles studio, Ziman ferried the aircraft on the flatbed truck from east to west across the country. To launch one of the most exciting projects, he partnered with Thenjiwe Pretty Nkogatsi, founder of Anointed Hands in Johannesburg. Alongside accomplished Ndebele craftspeople, they created a dazzling explosion of color and shape on the jet. Come race MiG-21 Project’s stunning multicolored glimmering tens of millions of glass beads. These beads, which hue the aircraft dark blue from top to bottom, inside and out, adorn every piece of equipment.
Beauty can help start the conversations, and it can help communicate the different viewpoints involved in complex issues like war and conflict, Ziman feels. He stated, “When you cover a weapon or a warplane with beads, the public, especially young people, can see them with a new perspective and become interested in talking about what they actually mean.” This intentional framing is an invitation for viewers to think about how they can participate in conversations around current and unmet global challenges.
The beauty of the artistic collaboration while drawing our attention to the complex process that is beadwork. Nkogatsi explained, “Different techniques stem from different subcultures and families, and we had to be able to master all in order to make the vision come to pass.” She emphasized the need to unpack cultural components into more manageable parts. These pieces can then be integrated within our everyday routines, invoking the best vision of who we are and who we can be.
Photo by Patrick C. Miller Beyond its aesthetic value, The MiG-21 Project has a larger philanthropic purpose. Of the proceeds from any future sale, a share will go to fund philanthropic organizations. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the healing benefits of art therapy for children traumatized by the war in Ukraine. Ziman expressed his commitment to using the project as a means to support victims of conflict: “We will basically use this plane initially created by Russians during the Soviet Union to help some of the war victims in Ukraine.”
Through this work, Ziman continues to reexamine the legacy of militarization. Second, it challenges us to confront and discuss today’s most urgent social problems. He noted that the project has motivated him to speak out against the militarization of police forces and other societal concerns: “[I] hate finishing things because I can no longer improve them.” And his ambition for ongoing refinement speaks to his larger vision of conversation that enlivens the public sphere beyond the usual ideological divides.
Today, The MiG-21 Project is one of the most effective and poetic examples of how art can completely change the way we think about war and militarization. By transforming a once-feared weapon into a vibrant work of art, Ziman invites viewers to re-evaluate their understanding of such symbols and consider their implications in today’s world.