The Gun Show
new work by Valerie Mann
above: Little Gold Glock purse
Where to start….I, Valerie Mann, am the blogger for WSG gallery. It’s hard to interview myself, but it’s a good challenge. Preparing for this show has been an exercise in holding my own feet to the fire, so perhaps this post is just an extension of that.
I first started thinking about this show about a year and a half ago. It was a blessing AND a curse that I began talking about my ideas for the show with other artist friends…..because then they would ask me how work was going and I had to have something to tell them.
I have used evening gowns as elements in my sculptural work before and it’s impossible to get away from them as metaphor for the body, but they are mostly just another media to create with – a substrate if you will…..a part of the materials list.
above: Dance All Night, evening gown, thread, dress form
Likewise, my interest in making handbags as sculpture has been going on for quite a while. They are these great little platforms for experimenting with materials, design and functionality – or the lack thereof.
above, L to R: Tec-9 With Plaid, Little Gold Glock, Le Petit AK Clutch
The idea for this show simmered for a long time in my head and sketchbook. Initially the work was set to be more aggressive, more angry, but who wants more of that? My research initially looked at guns and mass shootings in a more general way. But I realized what a luxury it is to hold mass shootings at arm’s length when so many folks don’t have that choice. So I went deeper with my research into several specific mass shootings, finding information about the weapons used, how the shooters acquired them and what, if anything, family members or folks who knew the shooters could have done about the mental health crises they were in. Needless to say, the more I researched, the more sobering and depressing the project became.
Yet……..something kept telling me it was really important to put one foot in front of the other and to make the pieces for this show without flinching.
above: Big Guns, Little People, several handbags on back wall
The work for this show evolved into each gown representing a specific shooting. For instance, above, ‘Big Guns, Little People’ is specific to Sandy Hook Elementary, in Newtown, CT. On the wall next to each gown is a placard, telling the regular stuff you see at an art exhibit, like, title, media, price, but then there ‘s the location of where the shooting took place, the weapons used, rounds fired, people killed and injured, as well.
A neighbor came to my studio the other day as I was finishing the work and I explained the work to her. She’s an elementary school teacher. She was almost physically ill. Yet, we had a great conversation about the work, guns, our hopes and fears for our children and ourselves and fellow countrymen and women.
I expect to have more amazing and not too comfortable conversations with people I know and total strangers. That’s exactly what work like this is supposed to do.