Sculptor Gar Waterman was welding together a “ray gun,” reliving a childhood spent playing with toy firearms and shooting real ones, when tragedy struck in Newtown — and gave his piece a bitter new edge.
Waterman (pictured) completed his “Atomic Death Ray Gun” and turned it into a satirical send-up of a national fixation with firearms, entitled “No Background Check Required.”
The piece is part of new exhibit at the Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville.
The show, called “The Right To Bear Arms,” comprises artworks in a variety of media created by the gallery’s member artists in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook.
The show is unabashedly political and, at times, heavy-handed. The exhibit as a whole functions as a powerful indictment, with artworks that display anger, grief, terror, biting irony, and personal reflections on the fraught role of guns in America.
Taking on the polarizing issue of guns in America has already had some consequences for the gallery. Waterman said some people asked to be taken off the Kehler Liddell mailing list after receiving the postcard announcing the show, which features a photo of six little kids pointing guns at the camera. “They felt like we were making fun of the Second Amendment,” Waterman said.
For little boys, guns become a fixation early on. Waterman said that was the case for him; he sees it now in his 8‑year-old son. When “Newtown hit,” Waterman said, he was struck by the “huge disconnect between the weird attraction boys have for guns, and what they do.”
Even now, after 20 kids were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook elementary school, Waterman said, he himself feels the attraction for guns. “I love looking at this thing,” he said, pointing to his “ray gun,” which is made with some components made for Sikorsky military helicopters. “I think it’s cool. How crazy is that?”
Guns are often presented as sexy, empowering, cool consumer items, fun to have for shooting at targets, Waterman said. “The reality is fucking hideous.” Guns are designed for only one thing, “and that’s to kill.”
Waterman has turned even his gun into a consumer product, combining it with a satirical wall-mounted brochure that exemplifies his “cynical, dark sense of humor.” Unlike some firearms marketing material, Waterman’s poster makes no attempt to hide the gun’s true purpose:
“With Advanced Point and Shoot Technology (APST), killing is a breeze. Decapitate, disembowel, and dismember in one easy step. Grasp gun grip firmly, locate targets and gently squeeze the trigger. You are on your way to your own killing spree! Sweep weapon gently from side to side until everything is dead.”
Rod Cook, another artist in the show, similarly explores two sides of American gun culture: the fetishized fantasy of firearms and the reality of mass-shooting carnage. His contribution to the show, “FUBAR,” pairs pornographic images of busty nude gunslingers with clippings of news coverage of violent gun deaths.
In a corner nearby, a sculpture depicts two children playing with a gun and bullets, recalling a number of recent headlines about kids accidentally shooting themselves or siblings. The piece is called “Playdate,” and won’t be called subtle.
In the back of the gallery, Tom Edwards’ piece, “Face The Target (Universal Self Portrait),” features a shooting target, with a mirror in place of the silhouetted figure’s face. This is another blunt artwork, both in-your-face and your-face-in. In a quirk due to the way the show is hung, as you approach the piece, the mirror frames the screaming face depicted in a Frank Bruckmann painting across the room.
Three somber lithograph portraits by Kristina Kuester-Witt offer a quieter experience. The three impassive figures are adorned by weapons, but seem imprisoned, burdened by the guns they wear as a crown, on their onesie, or as a deadly necklace.
“The Right To Bear Arms” is up at the Kehler Liddell Gallery until May 26.
"both in-your-face and your-face-in" -- Nice!