In this exhibition there are a number of works which
seem to relate to Texas, where the exhibition was originally shown.
Polke asked to be sent a variety of Texan newspapers which may have
provided inspiration for several works, such as the images of the
gun sellers and firing range, and the advertisement for Remington
ammunition. These images feed into a well-established stereotype
about the gun culture of the American West, from Western films about
cowboys and outlaws to contemporary gun lobbies arguing for rights
to possess firearms. But Polke adopts an ambiguous position. Many
of these images present the social, sporting world of shooting arcades
and competitive target practice rather than expected images of gun
violence and aggression.
In Splatter Analysis (2002) and I Don’t
Really Think About Anything Too Much (2002) (see above), Polke
focuses closely on the patterns made by the scattered bullet holes
across the shooting targets. These patterns resemble the dissolving
dots and shapes found in Polke’s ‘raster dot’
and ‘Printing Mistake’ paintings, encouraging the viewer
to look for coherent shapes and forms in the random shot marks.
In these works the act of shooting, involving marking or staining
a target, can be seen as a parallel to the process of artistic image-making.
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Fastest Gun in the West 2002
Courtesy Michael Werner, New York and Cologne © Sigmar
Polke |
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