photos and text by Annie Lesser
Following the stenciled bullets along the stairway, against the green walls, passing the lip marked targets and photographs, into the West Side Rifle and Pistol Range, a man whose cheek is adorned with a singular kiss stood before a case filled with bullets, guns, and lipstick. The entire underground shooting range was filled with people whose cheeks and bodies had been touched by Alison Nguyen. The aforementioned artist’s “Kisses & Guns” exhibit opened this weekend featuring photographs, stencils, prints, and installations expressing the intimacy of lips and metal against flesh.
On opening night people walked inside the firing range as photographs hung from the slide which usually holds the paper targets. Seeing the holes on the back wall of this room and standing where bullets had flown just hours earlier gave the intimate photographs an eerie tension. The people who stood where shooters usually stand had the full panorama of photographs, bullet holes, and human beings in front of them. Shooting each photograph with their eyes.
One piece of interest was a photograph on a cork board. It was shot on a beach instead of inside the Rifle Range. The photo showed a young Asian couple kissing while wearing medical masks. The vibrant blue background of the water and the grain of the sand contrasted the stark white or black backgrounds in other photos. This photo showed the subjects wearing regular clothing with labels and multiple layers, while other photographs portrayed people in simple clothing or lacking garments. Nguyen said it was related to another, slightly desaturated, photograph hanging from one of the slides, a close up of a woman whose face was adorned in a medical mask. Alison explained that it was supposed to be a commentary on today’s outlook on safe sex. What if you kissed me while I wore this mask?
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Kisses & Guns will be at the West Side Rifle and Pistol Range (20 West 20th) until September 19th. The photographs displayed along the target slides will not be included in the every day showing of Alison Nguyen’s work, but will be shown again at the closing ceremony, September 18th 7-9:30pm.
Annie Lesser is an international award winning poet, produced playwright, and avid art history enthusiast. Born in Chicago Annie has lived in New York City, Prague, Amsterdam, Beijing, and a small provincial town just outside of Shenyang, China. She started writing for the Washington Square News in 2007, in 2009 was Editor-in-Chief for the short lived arts magazine The Dime Museum, and currently is a contributor to UnderTheArch.TV. In 2007 Annie produced a lecture series on the history and contemporary significance of sketch comedy in the United States entitled, “Sketch Comedy: Hobos No Mo.” For more information on Annie you can check out her website annielesser.com or her political cartoon blog www.chicktators.tumblr.com.