Shoot, That's Fun. The Bullet Hole Art Of Walt Creel.

above image courtesy of The Birmingham News

Walt Creel of Birmingham, Alabama uses a deadly weapon, ironically, to create images of sweet Southern wildlife. Brandishing a rifle, he fires .22 caliber bullets through 4' x 6' white painted aluminum panels to form images of a deer, an owl, a rabbit, a possum, a squirrel and bird in his project, De-Weaponizing The Gun.


detail of Rabbit:


The pointillist-like art is as interesting to admire up close as it is from afar, and is the artist's attempt at taking away the destructive power of the gun.

Squirrel:

The finished image of Squirrel [above] and creating the piece [below].

Deer:

Close -up of deer:

Bird:

Possum:

Rabbit:

Owl:


DEWEAPONIZING THE GUN by Walton Creel

In the artist's own words:
The terms gun and weapon are practically interchangeable. From hunting to war, self defense to target practice, the gun has been a symbol of power and destruction. Art and entertainment have both taken the same approach to he gun. Traveling Wild West shows had gunslingers that shot crude silhouettes and names, but this was done to illustrate the shooters prowess. Some artists have used high speed film to capture a bullet slicing through its target, while other artists have melted guns into sculptures.



When I decided I wanted to make art using a gun, I was not sure what direction I would have to take. I knew I did not want to use it simply as an accent to work I was doing, but as the focus. My main goal was to take the destructive power away from the gun. To manipulate the gun into a tool of creation and use it in a way that removed it from its original purpose, to deweaponize it.



During my first experiment I came across the concept of creating an image hole by hole on a surface. I also figured out that canvas would be too stressed by the process of a rifle firing many bullets into it.

A test firing of the bullets into canvas:


I moved on to aluminum and, with further experimentation, I figured out exactly how far apart my shots needed to be and that moving beyond .22 caliber was simply too destructive. When the aluminum was painted beforehand, the blast of the gun knocked off a tiny amount of paint around each hole, which helped fuse the image together.



images courtesy of the artist and the Coleman Center For The Arts,

Deweaponizing the Gun is an ongoing series presented in installments.

A Fake Pool Makes A Splash All Over The World.

Initially conceived of 12 years ago, the 'fake' swimming pool by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, known for his illusion-like installations, has been featured at various museums around the world. In 2001, it was featured at the 49th Venice Biennale in Arentina. In 2004, it found a permanent home at the 21st Century Art Museum in Kanazawa, Japan. In 2008, the fake pool was set up for a 2 year installation at MoMA's PS1 Contemporary Art Center. And as of December 2010, the pool was being installed in the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.

In Japan:




For the long-term exhibit at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, he constructed a full-size pool [20 x 9 7/8 x 10 feet (600 x 280 x 300 cm)], complete with a surrounding deck [the installation in Japan's museum does not have a wood deck], underwater pool lights and ladder.



When one first approached upon the amazingly surreal piece from the ground floor, it appeared that people, fully clothed, were standing underwater, alive and engaged in conversation, on the floor of what appeared to be a very real swimming pool.




However, when examining the pool from underneath, one sees that it's actually empty and the illusion of the water-filled space is achieved by his placing a large piece of transparent laminated glass suspended over the pool atop which lies some actual water.





The interior of the pool's walls are painted aqua to further add to the illusion.


One enters through pool through the opening shown below:


Here are the installation photos of the pool's latest appearance at The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia:



Artist's Bio [courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery]


Leandro Erlich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. At age 20, he won a grant from the Antorchas Foundation to take an advanced sculpture and installation workshop under the direction of Luis F. Benedit and Pablo Suárez. Between 1998 and 1999 he took part in the Core Program, an artist-in-residence program in Houston, Texas, U.S.

In 1999 he moved to New York and presented his first exhibition in a commercial New York gallery. Over the next two years he participated in the Whitney Biennial and represented Argentina at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001).

Erlich's works are in several private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London; Musee d'Art moderne, Paris; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; MACRO, Rome; and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC), Paris.

Erlich lives and works in Paris, France, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

images and info courtesy of the following:
The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan
MoMA PS1
Somethingstartedcrazy on Flickr
Building process photos in Brisbane by Natasha Harth courtesy of 21c blog

Modern Highlights From The Los Angeles Art Show - Part II

Yesterday I shared with you some of the more modern highlights from the Los Angeles Art Show in Part I and now the eye candy continues with Part II.

Joshua Suda:


Claudia Parducci:


Gerd Leider:

Irene Presnner:


Harry Holland:

Troels Worsel:

Lin Quinyan:

Margit J. Fureder:


Ronald Kulla-Kinzie:

Peter Clark:

Shen Jingdong:

Patrick Duegaw:

Ilona Zaremba:

Sara Friedlander:

Jean Wells:

Will Kissmer:

David Bromley:

Sebastian Artz:


See Part I here
The 2011 Los Angeles Art Show
Links to all the participating galleries