As a school teacher who spends quality time in closets practicing dying or being a “hero”, the Uvalde shooting was the final catalyst to create a work that is a visceral reaction to the epidemic gun violence in the country, of school shootings and the shallow offering of “thoughts & prayers”. This work reflects the socio-political tragic dilemma that exists with gun ownership in America. While my work is not always directly connected to particular socio-political issues, this work represents a not so subtle primal wailing with regards to the atrocities that go on in mass shootings throughout the country. Although I am not religious, this work references Michelangelo's Pieta in that Mary’s loss of Jesus may evoke an understanding of our universal loss every time we encounter these tragedies. It is a shrine to the gun owners, a shrine to the loss of life that needs to be visceral. The act of destroying children's toys was difficult, the toys represent the loss of a loved thing, both the children themselves and the things they love.
“Dividing reality up into parts and then naming those parts is always arbitrary, a product of convention, because subatomic particles, and everything else in the universe, are no more separate from one another than different patterns in an ornate carpet." David Bohm, Physicist
"All matter has a wavelike character." Brian Greene, Physicist
All images copyright Serena Buschi