The Ambiguous Family, part 3

“ . . . when asked if gay couples and pets count as family, 30 percent said pets count but not gay couples.”

--MSNBC

The concept of ‘family’, apparently, has many meanings to many people.  That certainly makes it a good topic to explore for artwork that is intended to start conversations.

We simply cannot ask what a family is without examining gender roles.  Take a look at this weeks’ Newsweek cover story: “Man Up: The Traditional Male Is an Endangered Species.  It’s Time to Rethink Masculinity”

Another project that I stumbled upon during my research is the Queer Oral History Project, supported by the Utah Pride Center.  Some of their interviews are available at:

http://vimeo.com/qohp

Touching, chilling, frustrating . . . there’s a range of emotions there.  Highly recommended and informative for anyone who thinks they have the idea of ‘family’ simply defined.

Ammo Table, part 5

Why use a religious symbol made from ammunition? 

The ties between faith and violence are many, and the debate rages as to which violent acts in the name of religion should be warranted, condoned, rejected, and denounced.  Even the perception that a religious group will use violence to its ends causes impassioned debates and ill-informed grandstanding (just try mentioning the words ‘ground zero’ and ‘mosque’ in a public place).

While I was working on the piece decided that I couldn’t in good faith use ammunition casings without understanding more about ‘gun culture’ in the U.S.  So, I took a basic handgun class at Get Some Guns & Ammo, LLC.

Most of the other folks in the class wanted to understand handguns for personal protection reasons.  It appears this was not uncommon for new handgun purchases, even thought the estimates for crimes deterred by gun use range from 100,000 per year to 2.5 million, and the methodology for determining what role gun ownership played is highly suspect and highly manipulated by weapon manufacturers and the NRA.  How on earth do you count the number of break-ins that didn’t happen because a robber suspected you owned a gun, or vice versa?

I’m not a gun owner, and have difficulty imagining a situation where I would want one other than during an apocalyptic societal breakdown (‘The Road’) or to hunt for cheeseburgers after In-N-Out is closed.  So, it was a good thing that most of the class was dedicated to understanding the safety principles and operation of the various types and calibers of weapons.

Afterwards we spent a good amount of time shooting different handguns on the indoor range.  My lasting impression of actually using .40cal and 9mm weapons was how violent the act of shooting was – the controlled explosion in my hands was in no way commensurate to the relatively delicate act of loading the clips and pulling the trigger.

And, it was thrilling.  To have that much power at my immediate disposal pushed all of my evolutionary buttons.  Gun designers and their advertising firms understand emotional triggers. 

Burning Man

I spent last week at Burning Man, a festival of 40,000+ people in the Nevada desert north of Reno.  I gave a presentation on our travels in sustainable communities (www.intentionallivingproject.blogspot.com) and had the good fortune to be on a panel with several other folks who were working with communities around the world. 

Black Rock City becomes the third largest city in Nevada during Burning Man.  Its airport, mail service, and radio station only exist for the seven days of the festival.  During the rest of the year Black Rock City has nothing but desert dirt and wind.

We’ve traveled through a lot of intentional communities, and the generosity I experienced at BM was up with the best of them.  Within walking a couple hundred feet of where we were camping I was given fuzzy dog slippers, beer and song at an impromptu Irish bar, and a chunk of tasty chocolate.  BM operates on a gift economy, meaning that people brings their gifts (food, music, art, etc) and share them without money or even the expectation that they will receive a gift in kind.  The only things you can buy are ice and coffee.

There were literally miles of ‘streets’ (the entire festival packs up completely each year, leaving nothing behind – the concept of ‘street’ is a temporary one), so you can imagine the conversations and gifting that would happen if you had time to walk them all, which you would not.

In six days, I saw three pieces of trash.  There are no trash cans or trash pick-up services; everyone took care of their own.

It was fascinating to be part of a community that had the expectation of personal expression.  I felt most out-of-place when I was not dressed up in costume or outwardly exhibiting some form of creative expression (driving a flame-throwing four-wheeled pedal-powered bicycle, for example).  The norms of the Burning Man community were clearly that you should do something creative to share with those around you – the quickest way to get derided was to walk around in khakis and a baseball cap.

Pirate ships don't build themselves, indeed.

http://www.burningman.com/ 

Refined Recycling

Why not just go to the store and buy new steel, wood, and paint to make art? 

It is easier, takes less time, and in some cases would cost less than using re-purposed (or recycled, upcycled, found-object, insert various other terms) material.

I have found that using other objects to make new ones (tables from wood pallets, planters from bomb fins, sculpture from bike gears) brings out the beauty of the original material.  .40 cal ammunition shells are quite elegant when looked at closely.

Found stuff has been an inspiration to lots of folks, and not just in terms of physical sculpture.  The following are some of my favorites who celebrate the innate beauty of something they find rather than buying it new or re-cloaking it in paint:

Wrenchmonkees

These folks get the emotion imbued in motorcycles, and celebrate it dents and all.  They were more than willing to give me a tour of their digs in Copenhagen even though they were in the middle of moving (Ducati, on the other hand, gave me the cold shoulder when I came to visit them in Bologna).

Found Magazine

If there’s something harder to make beautiful than trash on the sidewalk, I don’t know what it is.

Andy Goldsworthy

Even if you don’t like getting nature all over you, check out Andy Goldsworthy’s work.  I highly recommend the film Rivers and Tides as well.