As part of a roundtable discussion on the exhibition of firearms and their history published in Technology and Culture, Professor Susanne Slavick shared her curatorial project “Unloaded.”
She said, in part, “The artists in ‘Unloaded’ visualize the power of the gun as icon and instrument, the damage it can do, and how weapons might be rejected, broken, or silenced. Some show the power that guns wield in both our daily realities and our personal fantasies. Others mourn and resist that power, doing everything they can to take it away, believing there are better ways to resolve conflicts, ensure safety, and keep the peace. I’m hoping that the works in ‘Unloaded’ do what any good art can do: make us recognize who we are, why and how we behave, and how we might envision a different, less violent world.”