SPACE GUNS

Space Gun was a child born from the parental convergence of nostalgia and a pure joy for making. When I was a young boy, as many pre-adolescent male children are, I was obsessed with guns, shooting things and playing at war. Given my parent’s relative unfamiliarity with firearms, this was certainly something that had not been a conditioned behavior. My father did not own any guns that I am aware of and target shooting or hunter were activities that I simply did not have exposure to this as a child. Yet despite this fact, whenever I play alone or even with friends, every stick or rock we found instantly was transformed into an imaginary weapon. There was a time, perhaps around 10 years old, when I raided the random assortment of supplies in my father garage one summer and began to create myself and arsenal of futuristic laser pistols, plasma rifles and heavy ion cannons with only some duct tape, a few dowel rods and discarded bits of PVC pipes. Even then I remember the shift from being a mere “finder” of gun-shaped things out in the Arizona desert, into a true designer and creator of such fare. The power of my imagination had met the capability of my own hands and as I happily used ever inch of my dad’s duct tape and any spare scrap laying around I remember the unexpected joy of what I now recognize was a kind of artistic flow-state. There was only myself and what I would build- both physical item and the imaginary universe around it. This work is an homage to that feeling — the marvelous purity of a sunny afternoon where there was no apology for or analysis of young affinity for guns and weapons. No consideration for how this might figure into the preview of a critical unpacking of the masculine tradition. There was only imaging, making, playing and creating. Somewhere along the line, as an artist interested in self exploration and committed to navigating the complexities of manhood, I lost some of that joy that comes from making somethings just for kicks. I am still fasciated by the reasons why, as a young child I was drawn to see a gun in every fallen tree branch or a knife in every stone and how this informs a larger picture of what it means to be ‘male’ in the world today. But for me, as an artist, this exploration cannot come at the price unapologetic, joyful maker-ship. Space Guns is that reminder.