Art Under Construction: The Artists

Guns and Poses

1999
porn magazines, gun catalogs, wire

The submitted work, entitled "Guns & Poses" is a recent series, which takes form in a series of flowers constructed from porn magazines and gun catalogs. Each flower ranges between 26" to 32" in height. These pieces build on a concept: reclaiming intimacy from pornography and violence. In deriving pleasure from pornography, one generally consumes the image without ties to its reality. Airbrushed Ms. December would not have the same appeal if one took into account she has two kids and is putting herself through night school. Likewise, in the admiration of guns, one venerates the craft and power of the firearm without considering its full implications–the aggressive nature of a mechanism designed to fire. When out on a shooting range enjoying the marksmanship of target practice, one tends to overlook the manner in which guns have changed the face of war or affected inner city mortality rates.

The seductiveness of pornography and firearms is based in illusion, where one is free to enjoy only when partial variables are considered and not the whole. By constructing flowers (a form intrinsically feminine in nature) out of pornography and guns, I am repairing perceptions that are skewed. The images appear far more violent when juxtaposed against the curves of a flower than they did between the pages of the magazines–thereby reclaiming a foothold in truth. In calling attention to themselves, the images reestablish intimacy with the viewer.