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| "Home y Sew 9," 1994.Functional surgical gun-wound, first-aid kit (micro-electronic distres beacon on FM band, gauze, saline, narcotic, angiocatheter, epinephrine, instructional magazine), concealed within a Glock 9mm handgun; 5 7/16 x 7 5/16 x 1 3/16 inches (each of two parts) Artist's prototype. |
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“Home y Sew 9”
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The fastest-selling gun today and the weapon of choice on the streets, the Glock 9mm gun is also used by NATO and 60% of law enforcement agencies in the United States. Firing seventeen rounds in a matter of seconds, it is one of the most lethal handguns today. Introduced by the Austrian military in 1983, the Glock 9mm is the first plastic handgun, and considered by many to be the most revolutionary advance in firearm technology since the Colt 45. Made of space-age polymers, the gun's popularity has been aided by its insertion into popular culture by way of movies such as "Die Hard" and video games such as "Half Life." For the artist Mel Chin, it was the lyrics of a Snoop Doggy Dogg/Lil Hershey rap song - "I'm stuck on your block with my Glock" that inspired the development of the sculpture "Home Y Sew 9."
Gutting the gun by disassembling its plastic shell, Chin replaced the firing mechanism, magazine, and ammunition with the contents of a gunshot wound trauma-treatment kit. Now featuring items such as a radio transmitter, instructional manual, gauze, and painkillers, the deadly Glock is transformed by the artist into a device for saving lives. While functional as a first-aid kit, the covert, internal transformation of the gun has a symbolic weight as well. During the Gulf War, pinpoint bombing and "smart" weaponry was compared to the surgical precision and technological advances of contemporary medicine. Stripping the romanticism from this sort of comparison, Chin's sculpture presents the grim reality of how violence intersects with healing in our daily lives. Demystifying the militaristic and media-saturated portrayal of weapons, the internal transformation of "Home y Sew 9" is a poetic model of covert activism and cultural change |
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