ABOVE: A patented Z® Backscatter X-ray image of a suitcase bomb, a product of American Science and Engineering Inc, which manufactures x-ray machines. A Brooklyn artist was constructing a homebrew suitcase bomb this week, as the New York Observer reported.

Chris Hackett, a co-founder of the radical artists’ collective The Madagascar Institute, was reported in yesterday’s New York Observer to be constructing a suitcase bomb to display as part of an upcoming exhibition by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. So far, the sculpture was to be theoretically functional, including a cell-phone trigger, fuel oil, and fertilizer, and would be displayed open so that viewers could see the inside. It’s all a little touchy, of course, because the whole show opens a few days before Sept. 11, and Hackett cheerfully informed the Observer that it would be the equivalent of about four pounds of TNT, or “enough to kill everyone in the gallery.”

This isn’t Hackett’s first time using explosives in his artworks, although his last outing doesn’t inspire confidence: he blew up a propane tank last year while trying to hook it up to a confetti cannon, breaking his jaw in the explosion. Also, when the police arrived, they found a cache of guns and ammunition, and he’s currently out on bail while that weapons charge whoop-de-do gets settled. The planned show is called “A Knock at the Door…” and will be spread out between two venues in Lower Manhattan, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the South Street Seaport Museum. The LMCC sent a clarification to the Observer later in the day saying that “there will be no hazardous devices on display.” So either the thing isn’t really a bomb, or they’ve pulled it. Remains to be seen which.

LINK: New York Observer > A Bomb Grows in Brooklyn