Happiness is a Fun Gun
The Gun Show at dA Center
for the Arts
By: Stacy Davies
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Just when you thought you were sick of guns—sick of people
being shot with them, sick of the NRA making love to them and
even sick of Liberals decrying their innate evil—along
comes a show that does not make you get political about it,
and instead lets you enjoy the artistic side of artillery. And
yes, there is one.
Curator Rolo Castillo has put together a mass of guns (he apparently
loves them—in an arty way, not a snipery way) creating
an arena of inventive, kitchy, electrifying (literally), and
even cutesy weaponry that Chuck Heston and Gandhi might find
utterly pleasing.
There are larger than life assemblages such as Disco Blood Massacre
(in which a ’60s-chic mannequin seems unrepentant over
her black light/strob flickering mirror ball crime scene) and
Richard Ankrom’s gun series of hardware re-tooled neon
armaments that crackle with 3000 to 7500 volts of electricity,
and smaller more subtle paper works like Karen Jaime’s
psychedelic-swirly “Got Bullets” and Sandy Abramowicz’s
negative space revolver silhouette surrounded by ink paisleys,
“The Gunshot.”
Drawing directly on collage-contrast, Dan Van Clapp has converted
two baby buggies and a kiddie car into rolling combat units
fastened with a gun-boat façade, camo netting, cannons
and other major fire-power. Likewise, Phillip Graffham’s
three bejeweled machine guns of pink, red and multicolored baubles
and beads send the armaments straight into Candyland. More whipped
cream, please.
Gigantic guns are also around every turn: a life-sized cannon
made of recycled garbage (a 2-liter bottle of soda replaces
the iron ball and is an apropos subliminal for getting off the
pop before your kidneys explode), David Buckingham’s exceptionally
crafted wall-sized Six Shooter made from painted metal sheets,
and at least two other guns bigger than a human torso. But there’s
more—much more—and with such a variety of form and
concept, it seems there really is a gun for everyone. Who knew?
