The bullet is a fool, but beautiful: an overview of weapon art

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is not a weapon that kills - it is a man that kills. Bullets, cartridges, crossbow bolts, gaping cannon muzzles, knives and nuclear missiles - all these are only conductors of furious human will. Regardless, we fear them - and we love them, we like them and disgust them - they are as contradictory as the universe itself, and as terrible as ourselves. That is why they attract artists, sculptors and photographers. The most interesting works of art on the topic of bullets are in this review.

War and Peace

First of all, bullets and cartridges are a symbol of war. Any work of visual art in which they are used immediately acquires additional semantic load. Usually this technique is used by the creators of pacifist art - this is how they add rough objectivity to their ideas.

Pacifist works of art made from bullets should excite a person's conscience - scare him, make him think. So, a ball bristling with cartridges, similar to a mine, looks like a scary symbol of the cynicism and hatred of war.

The palaces and temples made of cartridges, already described by us in the article on sculptures from firearms, evoke a whole heap of associations. They will make someone think about the "religious" background of many modern wars and the role of "believers" in creating a cult of violence; someone will think that, in general, history and beauty always grows on someone's blood, or in spite of it; well, someone will simply be glad that something beautiful can be created from bullets and cartridges.

Destruction

But the steel birds, released into the wild from the formidable gun barrels, have more than just a bloody purpose. In a more general, philosophical sense, the bullet is an instrument of the destructive will of man, and in many works of art it is perceived that way. Therefore, it is sometimes so interesting to explore the most common things shot and captured by a photographer - for example, playing cards.

The beauty of the surrounding world sometimes reveals itself most fully at the last second of his life, and even at the moment of destruction. However, this property is not of nature, but of our soul, which knows: to break is not to build, and is always ready to strike a fragile blow with childish cruelty.

And also a stupid bullet that suddenly flies out from around the corner is a metaphor for a sharp change in the course of things, an instant breaking of old concepts and foundations. After all, life consists of this - from constant shots of people, cases, chances. At the beginning of each play there is a gun on the stage - and at the end of it it will surely bang over your ear.

Creation

Because the weapon is perceived by everyone as an instrument of destruction, it is so unexpected to see its creative role. This is used by artists who are not fed with bread - make only the viewer be surprised. So, we already wrote about Walton Creel and his drawing with rifle shots.

Another kind of creative use of the "dumb bullet" is to create a pattern on old cars. Although, of course, first of all, the shooter is concerned not with the flowers that he writes out with shots, but with the loyalty of his hand.

And the most touching thing that can be created with the help of bullets and cartridge cases is flowers. The flower, made of metal twisted by gunpowder gases, symbolizes the final triumph of nature and the creative principle over the human passion for violence. All wars go by, and where explosions thundered and blood flowed, grass grows again - and she probably hopes that all this will never happen again.

And we - we will continue to love bullets: in the end, these fools should not be responsible for the sins of people.