______________
Robert Lazzarini Guns (2008)
Robert Lazzarini’s artwork springs from a desire to understand the perceivable limits of the material world. Conceptually and formally rigorous, he pushes ordinary objects to their limits by mining the twined threads of distortion and material veracity. By fully devoting himself to these indispensable characteristics, Lazzarini negotiates a place between two and three dimensions that challenges his viewers’ understanding of the physical world and their visual perception. Though often mistaken for mere anamorphism, Lazzarini’s work is in fact affected by multiple mathematical distortions so that his pieces elude finite conclusions and deny normative reads. In Lazzarini’s most recent exhibition, guns and knives at the Aldrich Museum of Art, he has turned his attention forward in two significant ways. The first is a shift within the sculptures, which for the first time conflate multiple objects to further complicate and abstract the forms. The second is an alteration of the actual gallery itself, whose walls are canted at varying angles to subtly disrupt the viewer’s apprehension of the physical space and further offset the distortions of the works themselves.
_______________
Ravi Zupa Mightier Than (2016)
“The main components are typewriter components,” Zupa said. “I’ll take apart a typewriter and paw through that pile and find pieces that seem appropriate.” He uses typewriter rollers as the barrels and stapler guns for the triggers and the grips on his mock assault rifles and machine guns. Zupa said he has fired the gun several times.
________________
Joana Vasconcelos Call Center (2014-2016)
Call Center presents itself under the form of an enormous Beretta revolver built with recourse to the accumulation of 168 black landline telephones, each of the same exact model. The title, associated to the referenced objects, appears to report to the manipulation and dehumanized excess that is characteristic of many call centers. Musician Jonas Runa composed an electroacoustic symphony for the telephone rings. Each ring was slightly altered in order to produce different notes, transforming the work into a musical instrument. Some of the suspended receivers and, most of all, the powerful speaker installed in the interior of the revolver cannon work as the vehicles for the electronics that integrate this singular and intense electroacoustic symphony.
________________
Phillip Toledano Hope & Fear (2015)
______________
Pedro Reyes Disarm (2014)
Pedro Reyes creates second generation instruments from dismantled guns. With a team of musicians and new media studio, Cocolab, Reyes has made mechanized instruments from these one-time harmful weapons.
_______________
Claes Oldenburg Ray Gun Wing (1977)
In Claes Oldenburg’s numerous Ray Gun works, he has an obsession with the right angle. In addition to creating several Ray Gun sculptures in a variety of materials (plaster, paper-mache, vacuum formed commercial plastics, etc.etc.), he amassed an even larger collection of found ray guns. “All one has to do is stoop to gather them from sidewalks,” wrote Yve-Alain Bois, “he did not even need to collect them himself: he could ask his friends to bring them to him (he accepted or refused a find, based on purely subjective criteria).” Ray Gun Wing, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 1977, documents his collection, and proposal for a museum.
_____________
David Černý Guns (1994)
By far the most famous contemporary Czech artist, David Cerny has snagged a name for himself as the “bad boy” of Czech art. In ‘Guns’ (1994), four gigantic “Guns” are aimed at each other while suspended in mid-air. Every now and then, a blast rings out from the guns to the sound of slamming doors, flushing toilets, and car brakes.
_______________
Constantine Zlatev THE CANDY MACHINE (2013 – 2016)
‘The installation uses a crankshaft system with a small stepper motor to automate the Winchester ’94 receiver mechanism, which has been modified to work with specially designed candy capsules. The gun magazine can store 7 ‘candies’ and each time a token is dropped in, the mechanical receiver dispenses a candy in lieu of a bullet shell. The installation is programmed and controlled through a Raspberry Pi board. The price of each candy is linked to a weapons stock index* and it is readjusted for each purchase based on the most current index value**. Once a coin is fed into the slot, the installation recalculates the new value in real time before ejecting a piece of candy. During regular trading hours, the index value changes constantly in accordance with the movement of the 5 stocks that it contains.’
_______________
Vija Celmins Various (1964 – 2010)
‘I think I felt that these images belonged to all of us. they were our images. However, I must have been interested in Freudian, phallic imagery of some sort, right? There is a photograph of me taken in 1966. I had been working on a large sculpture of a pencil stub, which is sitting beside me, along with a nude mannequin that someone had brought over for me to decorate for a show. that photo would have inspired Freud! I think many young artists have sex on their minds, and I think I did too. The drawing of the gun [Clipping with Pistol 1968] came from the fact that a friend of mine had been attacked and her boyfriend gave her a gun, so I wanted to do a picture of it. I did some paintings, and then got interested in gun magazines, tore out some clippings, did this one drawing and then lost interest.’ — Vija Celmins
“Pistol” (1964)
“Gun with Hand #1” (1964)
“Hand Holding a Firing Gun” (1964)
“Hand holding a firing gun (study)” (1964)
“Table With Gun” (2009-2010)
_______________
Felix Gonzalez-Torres Untitled (Death by Gun) (1990)
While González-Torres dealt with gay rights, AIDS, and a variety of governmental abuses in his own work and as a member of the collective Group Material, the subject of “Untitled” (Death by Gun), and its treatment, is unusually specific for him. Appropriating imagery from Time magazine, it presents 460 individuals killed by gunshot in one week in the United States, and includes the name, age, and circumstances of death for each person depicted. No opinion about gun control is added by the artist. Here an issue of public debate engages anyone who follows the artist’s intention and takes away one of his sheets. Dissemination, an age-old function of printed art, is ongoing since “Untitled” (Death by Gun) is reprinted as the stack is depleted.
______________
Mel Chin HOME y SEW 9 (1994)
“HOME y SEW 9” features a Glock-17 9 mm handgun that Chin transformed into a working first-aid kit. “HOME y SEW 9,” Chin said, came about when he “started thinking about how weapons in our culture, especially guns, have such a tremendous aura — a tremendous presence — in the minds of individuals across the country.” The idea of hollowing out the gun to make room for a first-aid kit struck him as “a better way of understanding our gun culture. The more you deconstructed this weapon, the more you could get closer to saving your life, or someone else’s.”
_______________
Charles Gitnick Various (2015-2016)
He’s not your average artist. For starters, Charles Gitnick is 11 years old. But age doesn’t mean a thing when you have New York, Miami and L.A. gallerists approaching you about your work. Doing art since age five, Gitnick started his ‘career’ by mixing colors, visiting art museums and learning about artists. His most famous work involves the splattering of paint and color over guns–all sizes, too, from petite pistols to heavy machine guns.
_____________
::vtol:: GBG-8 (2015)
Russian artist ::vtol:: recently created an 8-bit instant photo gun by combining a Game Boy, gun, camera, and a thermal printer with an Arduino.
_______________
Joachim Koester The Place of Dead Roads (2013)
The Place of Dead Roads is a video that follows four androgynous cowboys as they enact a choreographed duel. Staged in a subterranean maze, each subject motions at their invisible opponents with actions characteristic of the Western genre—drawing their guns, shooting, and shifting their bodies to survey their surroundings. Instead of being driven by story, their actions seem motivated by hidden messages transmitted from a world deep within their bodies, a notion that evokes Wilhelm Reich’s idea that “every muscular contraction contains the history and meaning of its origin.” Watch an excerpt.
______________
Francis Alÿs Camguns (2008)
Francis Alÿs’ series of cam guns: a group of wooden rifles that incorporate found film reels instead of bullet chambers, evoking the artist’s confrontational nature, attacking subjects through film but in this case allowing visitors to pick up the “weapons,” making them active participants.
_______________
Karen Kilimnik I Don’t Like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats, Shooting Spree, or Schoolyard Massacre (1991)
Banal, degraded, abject, or seemingly inconsequential, the objects of Karen Kilimnik’s installations together create jarring associations and hybrid perspectives on the issues of her day. In I Don’t Like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats, Shooting Spree, or Schoolyard Massacre, 1991, Kilimnick hung, drilled, and painted some components onto the wall, and scattered others, standing and sitting on the floor. These components–including shooting targets, chicken wire, a cassette player and cassette, clothing, photocopies, a whiffle ball and bat, a badminton racket, baton, mechanical toy dog, toy guns, lunchbox, jump rope, rubber ball, pencils, notebooks, gravel, pushpins–together comprise an aggressive, unsettling scene that presents by turns as a shooting range, magazine spread, classroom, child’s bedroom, and crime scene.
______________
John Baldessari Kiss/ Panic (1984)
Kiss/ Panic (1984) celebrates the banality of gun-culture evil in a rectilinear mandala that combines black and white images of firearms with a full-color close-up of mouths colliding in a kiss. The picture’s possible meanings ripple out from its ambiguous center in a way that is typical of Baldessari’s taste for paradox.
______________
Burt Barr Dolly Shot Twice (1997)
In the work, an attractive blonde woman (ostensibly named “Dolly”) is seen slumped over in a vintage Cadillac convertible parked in a wooded area. The scene is captured twice, first by a camera slowly moving to the left from a few yards away—in a “dolly shot”—and then again, but close-up, allowing us to take notice of the two bullet wounds in her head, as the camera slowly pans to the right.
________________
Laurie Simmons Lying Gun (1990), Walking Gun (1991)
_______________
Niki de Saint Phalle Untitled from Edition MAT 64 (1964)
Solicited by Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri to provide instructions for how her multiples should be executed, she responded with a letter written to Spoerri’s collaborator Karl Gerstner enumerating a set of “operating instructions.” Though unequivocally direct, her instructions point to an unusual (though signature for the artist) creative act, one to be explicitly followed by amateur marksmen, museum professionals, art patrons, and other interested parties. They read, in full:
Lean picture against a wall.
Put a strong board behind it (if required, in order to protect the wall).
Take a .22 long rifle and load with short ammunition.
Shoot the color pouches which are embedded in the plaster until they have “bled” (or until you like the picture).
Attention! Leave the picture in the same position until well dried. Then still be careful, as remains of color not yet dry might run over the picture.
The emphasis Saint Phalle gives here to the procedures for producing the work—the precision implied in choice of gun, ammunition, and effects of drying paint—is noteworthy, though rarely discussed in the Saint Phalle literature, both for its level of detail and for its relative flexibility. The identity of the shooter is not classified by gender or any other parameters, nor does Saint Phalle indicate any specified location for the shooting event. Rather, the “instructions” ultimately remain open-ended: aim and shoot until “you like the picture.” As a result, Saint Phalle’s premise for the edition was fascinatingly simple. Her “pop gun” method ensured that the monochromatic white could instantly transform into a polychromatic field of intensity; while the multiplication of the blank plaster canvases provided under the Edition MAT portfolio could offer the experience to unknown others.
_______________
Amir Mobed Come Caress Me (2010)
It was performed in September 2010 at Azad Art Gallery, Tehran. Mobed stood in front of a target, wearing a bodysuit with a protective metal box over his head, and invited gallery visitors to shoot at him with a pellet gun. It was, he says, a symbolic execution with a message about freedom of speech and the hopes of artists of his generation being silenced. Each time 15 visitor were allowed to enter to the gallery and shoot him. Visiors should stand behind one of the three lines that were painted on the floor and then shoot.
_______________
Antony Gormley Silence (2012)
_______________
________________
Luz María Sánchez V.F(i) n_1 (2013)
Luz María Sánchez’s work V.F(i) n_1 is a multichannel sound sculpture/installation. The title is a sort of acronym in Spanish; it means Vis. (un) necessary force. It is the first of the series, hence the number 1. V.F(i) n_1 addresses the subject of violence from the citizen’s perspective. Since media is not covering everyday experiences of violence, people flock to the arena offered by social networks, and share their own sounds and images –the ones that communicate their particular experiences within this context of explicit violence.V.F(i) n_1 is assembled using 74 audio players gun-shaped, that build a large format sound-texture composed of the same number of acoustic logs: shootings recorded by citizens caught in confrontations between law enforcement and organized crime in Mexico. V.F(i) n_1 consists of 74 independent audio channels, and the sound tracks are played individually on each of these speakers. At the end of the day and as the batteries run out of charge, speakers/guns go off gradually so the circle of operation/sound non-operation/silence is restarted. The audio tracks that integrate this sound installation/sculpture were taken from different videos available at the YouTube site.
______________
Dread Scott Blue Wall of Violence (1999)
targets, coffin, police batons, motors, steel pipe, Styrofoam cast arms, wallet, candy bar, squirt gun, squeegee, house keys
_____________
Jonathan Fletcher Moore Artificial Killing Machine (2015)
The installation is made up of an array of 15 digitally actuated toy cap guns dangling from the ceiling. A small receiver unit controls the guns autonomously. The toy guns sit dormant until a message comes over the wire from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which collects data on drone strikes. When a strike occurs, the guns abruptly pop into action, and a thermal printer clinically records the strike onto a ledger that dangles to the floor.
_______________
Skylar Fein Kurt Cobong (2014)
I really couldn’t think of anything to do with the gun. Months went by and I started to experience a light, effervescent panic over the deadline. I made regular work of sketching. Nothing. At one point, I did acid with a friend, and while tripping came up with a piece! Brilliant and devastating, it would galvanize the entire world of conceptual art. It would be called “Loaded Mossberg 500” and consist of that model of shotgun, sitting on a table. That’s it. There would be special protocols: the gun would be loaded with 7 shells — in full view — by an assistant IMMEDIATELY after the gallery opened each day, so the public could verify that it was live ammunition. The same assistant would unload the weapon at the close of each day should all the shells be left. And therein lies the excitement of the whole enterprise. Low odds, but high consequences. There were two problems with this: one, the idea sounded way, WAY better when I was tripping — hilariously, it seemed like MacArthur Grant material — and two, the gallery’s lawyer would not allow it. I doubt the lawyer had anything to do with it. My suspicion is that it was the gallery owner who nixed it. This seems fair enough. It’s not like I can’t imagine his concerns. I tried to rent a room in a downtown office building to do the piece but once I explained the purpose the offer was quickly withdrawn. I offered to maintain an armed security guard next to the piece at all times. No dice. The next day, I went to some other dump in the CBD to check out an office space, planning to be obscure about my purpose, but they had already heard about me and sent me away. One day some stoner kid was in my studio and on his way out the door, said, “You should make a bong out of it.” He said it, but when he said it, it wasn’t arch — he tossed it off, it fell from his lips like a Japanese cherry blossom. Once he’d left, I realized it was the best idea yet. After I made it, this gun became the house bong for a few weeks. It works great, though I haven’t exactly gotten used to putting the muzzle of a shotgun in my mouth. It’s still exciting every time.
_______________
Federico Mauro Famous Guns (2013)
______________
Mark Bain Acoustic Space Gun (2004)
Acoustic Space Gun (ASG) is a linear sound shifter, which couples a metre-long directional microphone with a parabolic sound emitter pointed in the opposite direction. Used in public space, it collects live sounds and conversations at long distances from one side, then amplifies and presents them far out to the other. Looking like a shoulder mounted sonic weapon of sorts, slightly space age and designed for functionality, it operates as an absurd spatial megaphone, which monitors the crowd in spaces to re-project and shift the natural dynamics of acoustic location. Coupled to the microphone input is an electronic circuit that can add up to 900 metres of delay to the signal. This adjustable delay line allows you to shift the sonic footprint of a certain space, producing a forced echo or canyon effect, which adds to the spatial feedback. Acting as a live mixing instrument, shifting the natural sounds and provoking other levels of hearing, the device is played at a level comparable to the surrounding ambiance. This subtlety added to the confusion, suddenly people can hear their voices coming from alternate directions and in other time frames, echoing off of building façades and twisting the normalcy of public sound.
______________
Chris Burden Shoot (1971)
_____________
Lee Seung Koo Compromise Between Me and Me (2017)
‘Lee Seung Koo installed a sculpture called Compromise Between Me and Me that looked like a dystopian Jeff Koons inflatable, with a huge gun firing gas-filled balloons shaped like hearts and oversized blood corpuscles across the gallery.’
_____________
‘This self-acting, field clock gun was patented in England by William Maund and Charles Millichamp on May 3, 1888. It is essentially a giant revolver that holds eight 16 gauge pinfire shotshells. The clockwork mechanism inside it can be set to fire the cartridges intermittently at intervals of as often as every 15 minutes up to every 1.5 hours. It can also be set to fire a single shot at a chosen time.
‘It was sold in two variations. One option had a handle on the top allowing it to be suspended from a tree or a barn. This is the example that I have and is shown in the pictures. There was also a variation that was sold at a 25% premium with a figurine of a person holding a gun as shown in the advertisement below.’
_____________
Sarah Blesener Toy Soldiers (2016)
‘In 2015, the Russian government proposed a program—the Patriotic Education of Russian Citizens in 2016-2020—that called for an eight percent increase in patriotic youth and a ten percent increase in recruits for the Russian army by the year 2020. The agenda is heavily weighted towards militaristic training and disseminating patriotic ideologies. Over 200,000 youth are currently enrolled in patriotic educational clubs—10,000 in Moscow alone. Every club functions independently, each with their own structure and philosophy. According to one source, the program will cost somewhere around 1.7 billion rubles for its first two years (around 30 million USD). My project, “Toy Soldiers,” explores the subject of intergenerational war for adolescents in Russia. It focuses on non-governmental organizations—such as military-patriotic clubs, military sports associations, and the patriotic clubs formed under the umbrella of the Russian Orthodox Church.’
*
p.s. Hey. ** PL, Hi. I don’t remember the ending, which probably says something. We’ve connected on Instagram. I was kind of coerced into joining there to promote our film, but it seems ok. Although it doesn’t accept gifs, which makes things hard for me. No, I’ve never been to Brazil. Just Argentina, Chile and Peru, as far as SA goes. I’d like to. It’s a great drawing, for sure. That one. Um, my favorite of my novels is ‘The Marbled Swarm’. Happy Easter if you do it (I don’t). ** Sypha, Haha, I’m just trying to enjoy the fact that my tongue is less bored now. ** Corey, Hey! Can’t say I have. That coffee thing is very funny. Wish I’d found it for the post. Fare thee well newsletter writing. Understandable nixing on your part. Sorry about the film festival no’s, but festivals are unfairly tough nuts, as we well know. Nice that you’re still dancing. Oh, well, Paris is fairly friendly in those months, so … nice target. And to have you around, natch. ** scunnard, Hi. Uh, I was coerced/forced to join Instagram by our producer to give our film presence there. But I also share the blog there like I do on Facebook. It’s alright. A lot more of my friends are there. Startup funds, best of luck. And do share the crowdfunding link when you launch it. Fake food! That would be a nice ghost, so I sure hope no one else wants that spot. My plans … mostly trying to get distribution and more festival screenings for the film. It looks promising that the film could get a theater release in France, but we’ll see. That would be amazing. Pretty much just that and writing the next film. ** _Black_Acrylic, ‘GR’ is a time-consumer, it’s true, but obviously worth it. I wonder if the new Pynchon is a biggie? ** Steve, Numbness is probably a saving grace. I suppose that was my mode too when dealing with my parents’ loss. The actual effect filters in forever in occasional ways. So sorry. Extremely plot heavy, ugh theoretically. But I’ll see it. Have fun getting the new radio episode together. ** James Bennett, Hi, James! Thanks a lot, man! Fantastic news about Ssnake Press! That’s so soon. You will give a heads up when the first book is imminent or alive, yes? Congrats! That’s really exciting. And the first book obviously sounds really good. Wow. I’m anxious to read it. Thanks re: my lag, which is taking its unsweet time to depart, as always, and lovely to see you! ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, my body is a bitch. I’m already chasing film stuff, but I’ll be better at it in a few days. Somehow we’ll get ‘RT’ to Vienna. ‘PGL’ showed there, and presumably the new one will be more appealing to show. I, of course, will give you a heads up when/if that’s in the cards. I will seek that book as soon as wakefulness returns. I’m happy that love found that saxophone line. I honestly think I’m going to swipe it for something. Love letting you point a gun (loaded or not, your choice) at whomsoever you wish, G. ** jay, Okay, I’ll stop daydreaming about the unavailable game. Its 124 hour length makes its reclusiveness even more tragic for some reason. ‘Very fractured and tonally incoherent’: yum! You doing Easter in any respect? Beaucoup chocolate eggs, if so. ** James, What would constitute an Easter-y gif? Perhaps that firing gun at the top of today? Well, since you read ‘The Marbled Swarm’, perhaps you’ll be proud to know that I hereby declare you to be an honorary flatso. Thanks, yay, for your substack location. Bookmarked. Everyone. The mighty James has shared his substack, and, if you know him or know his comments at least, you know that said substack is kind of a must. So join me in going over there and even subscribing. Do that here. As soon as my brain cells returns, I will read you and read you. America is in an absolutely massive pickle. Any chance of getting a peek at your paper cranes or receiving a detailed description, eh? No, GbV is definitely my favorite band. Strange if I said Sebadoh. I do really like Sebadoh up through ‘Bubble and Scrape’ and am ok with ‘Bakesale’ but not really after that. I do love 90s lo-fi. But I love Pavement more than Sebadoh. Blahblah. Assuming you’re in Edinburgh now, return safely and tell me everything. ** Steeqhen, We’re sort of pleasantly clear and crisp here. Nice after almost too warm LA. Thank you, thank you! Dude, there’s no way your thing stinks. I mean, seriously. Cool, about the Cork screening. We’ll sort it out. Awesome. I did see the Switch 2 stuff, yes. I think my LA roommate will get it first thing because he’s an extreme Mario Kart addict. So I’ll check it out when I’m there again in a coupla months. Great about the lit journal acceptance. Do you like reading your work, I forget? Since it’s Easter, I’m guessing there’ll be pretty much squat to do here this weekend, which will suit my low-wattage brain very well, Enjoy yours. ** Misanthrope, Really beautiful words about Rigby. I was going to ask you what happened. I knew he’d been unhealthy for a while, but my impression was that he was doing much better. But I guess the damage was already there. Anyway, words fail, but I guess enjoy your memories, and I wish I’d gotten a chance to see him again. It had been ages since you guys were over here and I did. Happy anniversary! See, there’s some way upbeat news. If you do Easter, do it up. xo, me. ** Tyler Ookami, Hi, Tyler. Yes, the Las Vegas thing is most enticing too. I guess Universal totally fucked up their attempt to relaunch their monsters with those shitty movie remakes, so hopefully it’s a more appropriate restart. Nice about the Troma fest. I saw they’ve remade ‘Toxic Avenger’, which seems like a probably bad idea, but … ** Uday, Hey there! I saw Kylie Minogue on this TV show ‘The Residence’ when I was in LA. She was funny. I’m hoping my lag will be like it never happened by Monday — not impossible — so catch me up as properly as you like then. Really good to see you! ** catachrestic, Hi, Jared! Cool, you meant it. Well, I hope you’ll actually invite me to that party, won’t you? Gosh I think you’re right that my geography knowledge is vastly enhanced thanks to the escorts. They’re so handy! Never been to the Philippines. I too would like to go when it’s not boiling hot there if it ever is. Asia too. I’ve only been to Japan and Hong Kong myself. I’m still too hazy to make a judgement call about Paris, but it looks pretty much like it did when I left it, at which time it was lovely. No, can’t say I think much about 1848. Maybe I’ll make that a mission. I did watch that movie ‘Napoleon’ on my flight back, and it is highly not recommended, btw. Awesome to have you back. Let me wake up a little more so I can be a proper host/confab pal. ** HaRpEr, Great! A couple of days is completely A-okay, of course. Thank you so much! I haven’t heard the new Jane Remover, no, but I definitely will thanks to you. Yep, about DFW’s sentences. As always, you characterise them definitively. No, those ruffian, aesthetically challenged ex-schoolmates of yours are clearly the pathetic ones. Clearly. ** Malik, Ah, lucky you. Meaning I can only really write in the mornings and early afternoons and then my brain starts only wanting input. Yay! Pride highly warranted. So, if you’re a director next time, will you only have a super brief time to figure out how to direct whatever insta-play you’re given? I’ll give you my words about ‘BI’ as soon as I get my eyes and ears on it. Happy … Easter? Or weekend at least. ** Okay. This weekend you get the third entry in my blog’s ongoing but very occasional Guns franchise. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 