Journal of Visual Culture welcomes compelling, critically engaged contributions that explore and expand trans-disciplinary global visual cultures


Themed Issue: Armed/Unarmed: Guns in American Visual and Material Culture (Vol 17, Issue 3, 2018)

Faye Gleisser (Indiana University Bloomington) and Delia Solomons (Drexel University) deliver an ambitious and challenging themed issue exploring representations of gun violence in diverse aspects of contemporary culture, and its ripple effects in thought and visuality. By way of topics such as the invisibility of weapons (as well their effects), and by considering the participatory dimensions of people who do not appear to be related to gun violence or culture, Gleisser and Solomons map uncharted territories of inquiry on the issue of guns in contemporary American culture. As the editors note in regard to the need for a broader research domain,  ‘[a]s technology and consumer demand disseminate weaponry at such a furious pace, we write with a sense of urgency.’ As a consequence, Armed/Unarmed: Guns in American Visual and Material Culture  includes both a breadth of trans-disciplinary reflections, and also a curated portfolio of related artworks, and a Roundtable on the Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics of Exhibitions about Guns:
  • In their introduction, Faye Gleisser and Delia Solomons detail the organizing of this themed issue, and introduce their reflections on the usage of Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) by the police and the military, as a way to represent some of the issues surrounding gun culture that are not visible or visually represented in current discussions of the topic.
  • Michelle Millar Fisher considers the relative lack of representation and reflection on guns, design and violence in current exhibitionary practices and art institutions.
  • Brynn Hatton discusses representation in arts and popular culture of two iconic rifles emerged during the Vietnam war: the American M16 and the Soviet AK-47, that were not only were pervasive weapons in worldwide conflicts since the Cold War era, but also became icons of political affinities and affiliations with the two blocs.
  •  Colette Gaiter looks into the construction of the visual imagery of artist Emory Douglas for the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, as a means of symbolic empowerment of the African-American community. Gaiter also looks into how the reception of Douglas's work has transformed over decades and is now celebrated for its activism and aesthetics, and how it became a reference point for later movements and imagery on black representation and activism.
  •  Faye Gleisser studies the paradigmatic performance piece Shot by Chris Burden and the work of conceptual art collective Asco to understand the racialized politics behind the representation of risk-taking, guns, and violence in America.
  •  Using Black Critical Studies and affect theory, Patrice D Douglass reads the judicial case of Utah v. Strieff to uncover how structures of slavery have an afterlife in how current law understands body autonomy under the law.
  •  In a similar vein, Lindsay Livinston analyses the the 2014 standoff between Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management as an instance of performing race and belonging, and how this case exposes discrepancies between law and practical gun ownership.
  •  Faye Gleisser and Delia Solomons compile a selection of recent and contemporary artworks examining the materials and metaphors of guns, spanning multiple generations and media.
  •  Finally, the editors coordinate a Roundtable with curators Atteqa Ali, Jonathan Ferrara, Kathy O’Dell , and Susanne Slavick to explore the pedagogical, political, ethical, and even legal conundrums arising from curating exhibitions examining the materials and metaphors of guns in US institutions.
Contents
Faye Gleisser, Delia Solomons
Editor’s Introduction: Armed/Unarmed: Guns in American Visual and Material Culture

Michelle Millar Fisher
The Most Fascinating and Well-Designed Artifacts of Our Time’: Collecting and Exhibiting Contemporary Guns in the Art Museum

Brynn Hatton
Hold your Gun Arm Steady to Keep the Color of the Flower: The Propeller Group and Le Brothers

Colette Gaiter
Visualizing a Black Future: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party

Faye Gleisser
Asco, Chris Burden, and the Politics of the Misfire

Patrice D Douglass
On (Being) Fear: Utah v. Strieff and the Ontology of Affect

Lindsay Livingston
Brandishing Guns: Performing Race and Belonging in the American West

Faye Gleisser, Delia Solomons
Portfolio of Artworks

Roundtable: The Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics of Exhibitions about Guns. Contributions by Atteqa Ali, Jonathan Ferrara, Kathy O’Dell, and Susanne Slavick (Compiled by Faye Gleisser and Delia Solomons)

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