GUN DIVIDES

When the ubiquitous pencil tip has become a weapon of slaughter, and when a gun is as easy to obtain as a pencil, is life as fragile as a breakable lead?

             
After a massacre, the fragility and tranquility of the limbs smother the memory, and after a long time these lives and bloodshed are forgotten and crowded out by new political stunts. Everything turned into a silent long sleep.

Project Details

Gun violence still in the United States among teenagers and children remains on the rise. In May 2022, an 18-year-old gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle broke into Rob Elementary School in Vardy, Texas, USA, and shot and killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers. This is the 39th school shooting in the United States this year. Time magazine published an article titled "Guns Are Dividing America," intended to reflect the disunity within American political parties caused by gun issues. As an American high school student, I think a gun also divides our sense of security. I feel strongly about the daily, hidden, and potential crisis that gun violence poses to us. I hope to express gun violence's subtle but profound impact on teenagers through metaphorical artistic language.

Focusing on the issue surrounding guns from the perspective of teenagers, I try to give more profound direction reflecting on the gun problems. The project requires no application of a macro approach to discussing these issues since I will try to deconstruct such violence using symbols such as pictures to make a judgment. I drew a picture using red as the primary color to emphasize a sense of violence and blood, expressing a strong warning. The danger, violence, and massacres hidden in people's daily lives metaphorize the society we live in today. Therefore, the art of drawing pictures displaying these series of gun violence in society can help disseminate information on the need to end gun violence, creating awareness and influencing many people.

Title: Gloves
Size: 30cm x 38cm
Material: Colored pencils on drawing paper


Title: Baseball
Size: 38cm x 30cm
Material: Colored pencils on drawing paper

The baseball glove takes on the pose of a gun, the center of the wool ball is shot through, and the red thread and scattered blood are indistinguishable from each other. Baseballs and buttons are pierced by menacing thumbtacks and needles in the air. And the suspended objects represent the lightness of life and show the moment of being penetrated.