P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

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P.S.1 Newspaper

2008 Summer

That Was Then...This Is Now: Weapons

Christopher Y. Lew

Pino Pascali

Cannone Semovente

1965

Courtesy private collection

Photo courtesy Gagosian Gallery, New York.

Specifically made to kill another human being, weapons are literally double-edged, capable of both terror and liberation. From the ubiquitous Kalashnikov to flaming Molotov cocktails, what is a symbol of resistance and armed struggle for some is an instrument of death and mayhem for others. The works in the Weapons section of That Was Then…This Is Now all play on these dual roles, like twinned forces that have been responsible not just for individual lives, but also for the birth and death of nations.

Writing about independence movements, particularly that of Algeria, Franz Fanon said in The Wretched of the Earth, “The native’s back is to the wall, the knife is at his throat (or, more precisely, the electrode at his genitals): he will have no more calls for his fancies. After centuries of unreality, after having wallowed in the most outlandish phantoms, at long last the native, gun in hand, stands face to face with the only forces which contend for his life—the forces of colonialism.” The oppressed wields the same bombs, knives, and rifles as the oppressor in the struggle for freedom and equality.

The immense cost and scale of armed conflict is made visible in Chris Burden’s The Reason for the Neutron Bomb. Made up of 50,000 nickels and matchsticks, the installation resembles a massive fleet of tanks, or row upon row of ordinance. The repetition and physical insistence of the coins and matches alludes to what can march a country down a path towards nuclear holocaust. Legible on every nickel, it is nationalism minted and written large: Washington, Monticello, Liberty, In God We Trust.

Facing off with Burden’s installation is the monumental sculpture Cannone Semovente created by Italian artist Pino Pascali in 1965. It sits with menacing weight and heft, complete with a massive barrel and oversized wheels. As the title suggests, it is a “self-propelled cannon” that seems capable of taking off under its own propulsive power. A member of the Arte Povera movement that favored using everyday materials, Pascali, who died at the untimely age of 32, is best known for his series of weapon sculptures. Though he had also presented actual cannons as artworks, this sculpture is one of his largest, and is comprised of wood and scrap metal, as is most of the series. Its construction underscores the form that comes as much from the artist’s mind as the military. Speaking of his work and art in general, Pascali said in 1967, “an invented thing can also be lighter than air; it can also fly. On the other hand, it can create cement fortifications that no one can enter but that resist time, where people suffocate and die.”