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Kadie Salfi is an artist with a solo exhibition at A.I.R Gallery opening February 8th about gun violence against women in the United States. Images of some of that work are below. City Limits asked her to provide an artist’s statement. “Pretend you were talking to an NRA member in a low-population, low-crime state like New Hampshire or Utah, where the rate of gun violence is much lower than in New York,” we asked. “If that person wondered into the exhibit, what would you want them to take away from it?”
She responded:
Every 16 hours in the U.S. a woman is shot and killed by a current or former lover. This may or may not be happening in your community, and unless there is a high profile story about gun violence, which happens with mass shootings and more and more with shootings of black men, you may not know the amount of gun violence that is occurring in this country every single day. I made these paintings of lifesize guns intentionally bright and colorful so they pop off the wood, painted with makeup, referencing women, but when the viewer gets close enough to read the writing, I believe there is a change of perspective, both visually and emotionally. I hope “Every 16 Hours” makes people think about smart gun laws and domestic violence and the connection between the two. My guess is most NRA members would agree with a domestic violence ban on purchasing a gun. I have been around guns with friends and family members who hunt, my whole life, and fully believe that there are ways to own guns responsibly with smart guns laws, but we have a long way to go.
City Limits’ reporting on the intersection of art and policy is supported by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. City Limits is solely responsible for all content.
