History of Gun Target Series

In March 2008 Kristen Woodward first exhibited twenty paintings on paper gun targets at Penn State University's Freyberger Gallery. The targets were simply pinned to the walls, to reinforce the quality of the painting as object as well as image. The show generated very interesting discussions and was well received by the students and the community at large.

In a conversation with Penn State students in 2008, many viewed the exhibition as a challenge to gun ownership and immediately voiced objections to any restriction of their second amendment right.  But this right is not absolute.  It arguably has been the most contested article in the Bill of Rights, fraught with compromise and controversy.  Yes, we are allowed to stockpile muskets; biological weapons, not. 

The US Supreme Court just revisited the definition of a well regulated militia in 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller.  But it did not settle the question of whether this applies only to state governments, or to further define “well regulated’ .  Grammarians point to what is known as an ablative absolute construction in the Second Amendment, (which is considered formed with an opening justification phrase or qualifying clause, followed by a declarative clause where the opening phrase modifies the main clause much as an adjective would modify a noun. * ) Under this interpretation, the opening phrase is considered essential as a pre-condition for the main clause^.  This was a common grammatical structure during the time the Bill of Rights was written.  But it gives us more than pause today.

Students also discussed the totem, or fetish like structure of the targets.  Many are imbued with magical elements- horns and halos, for example.  Joseph Campbells writing about myth inform other viewings, as archetypes momentarily appear and dissolve back into the printed surfaces.  The target figures were ironically interrupted as Modern warriors, while still others saw them as flayed victims.  Despite these disparate interpretations, viewers conceded the pre-made figure was the most neutral, and the most true.

I find it curious that we trust anonymously printed images more than hand painted ones.  Who is the voice, or in this case, the brush, of authority?

* A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, but no one religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person

Kristen has continued working with this imagery, and have expanded it to include animal forms and some three-dimensional decoys. In January 2014 she had another exhibition of these works scheduled at Process Art House in Amarillo, Texas. The Director was also interested in her ideas about collaboration, and approved the inviting of five other artists to make a work on a gun target for inclusion in the show. One of the artist was John Adkins, which started the idea of creating a dialogue.