“The gun. It’s as American as apple pie,” DJ Pangburn writes at creators project.com. Originally envisioned by the Founding Fathers as tyranny deterrant, the gun has since become many other things: the criminal’s trusty tool, the hobbyist’s fetish and, depressingly, the police force’s preferred weapon in its dealings with African Americans. And though the NRA and responsible gun owners may point to hunting as a positive use of firearms, the reality is that the gun just can’t seem to outgrow the reason for its invention: ending human life.” Uh, what about protecting human life? Anyway . . .
But gun rights, ownership, and usage are complex issues. And the American Gun Show exhibition, curated by James Morgan and Dorothy Santos at at Works San José gallery in California, attempts to unwrap these complexities with artistic responses lying at the intersection of technology, free speech, personal liberty, and national identity.
Yada yada yada vagina gun, penis gun, Jesus gun, etc. While I’m sure the artists involved would love it if The People of the Gun were mortally offended by this exhibit, include me out. These works strike me as perfectly valid examples of artistic expression, created with a sense of humor and, yes, respect. Practically speaking, I could see where the recoil generated by the gun below – should it be a working example – could be less than horrible. (C’mon you were thinking it.)
And here’s a bonus (so to speak):
[Curator Dorothy] Santos tells The Creators Project the impetus for the show was [artist James] Morgan’s thoughts and observations on guns and gun culture, primarily based on Cody Wilson’s 3D-printed Liberator gun (a .38 caliber pistol). When Wilson made the Liberator files available, Morgan went through the process of printing and piecing together its various parts.
“In the process of assembling the gun I was struck by the mechanical quality of it and the immense amount of engineering that went into it—it was truly sublime being awe-inspired and terrifying,” Morgan says.
So a gun guy, artistically speaking. As I said, respect. [h/t DrVino]