Art, Guns and Power
By: Steven Heller
Henry Brimmer is a graphic designer, photographer, educator and agitator (in the good sense). He teaches Non-linear Creative Thinking Strategies through the Department of Advertising + Public Relations at Michigan State University in East Lansing. For 13 years he was the publisher of PhotoMetro magazine, a San Francisco–based monthly tab on photography that featured well-know and upcoming talent. Now that he has no more clients, he keeps himself on his toes by taking on challenging art projects that take him out of his comfort zone. The most recent is his entry for ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, “there’s something happening here,” a site-specific installation showing military snipers atop the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art. It is a specter of and commentary on our post-9/11 lives and the freedoms that are now in the balance. I asked him to take us through his rationale.
Pardon the pun, but what triggered this year’s entry into ArtPrize?
I have been interested in the public nature of ArtPrize for a few years now, and site-specific art in particular. ‘Touch Wood,’ a low-tech interactive project was shown inside the Grand Rapids Art Museum in 2011; in 2012 I went outdoors with ‘Gravity Matters Little,’ a sculpture suspended from a cable 180’ from the ground across two buildings in a busy city intersection. I used the same location in 2013 with ‘i want to be different,’ a simple 60’ ladder hanging from the cable. … For this year, I was offered the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA) as my venue.
True to my understanding of site-specific art, I looked at the UICA building (and the terrace on the 5th floor they offered me) from all different angles, and came up with the idea of the figures standing around on the rooftop, a wall on the terrace, and an adjacent building. The figures morphed from secret, nondescript agents to military personnel carrying guns or looking through binoculars. From a distance, I thought, the secret agent types would not be clearly identified as such; the military folks had enough ‘graphic’ information to be recognized and create the sense of a ‘presence.’
The trigger? Hmmm. I suppose no one can escape the media’s bombardment around military conflict these days (or the last 10 years): Gaza, Ukraine, drones, back to Iraq … and then Ferguson … combined with WikiLeaks, Snowden files, and the whole debate around loss of privacy. There is a heightened sense of increased military presence and surveillance: Big Brother IS watching.
more
http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/artprize-art-and-guns/