Inoffensive Weapon

This body of work continues to examine a theme which was developed from my previous work ‘not gun’. It investigates a collective semiology from not just post conflict society in Ireland but also the ubiquitous icons of violence that constantly recur in contemporary visual culture. The iconography of the weapon from childhood toy to modern conflict in urban society has embedded itself in collective memory, of course in an Irish context, but also in our everyday existence in an information-led global village experience. The works exploit and investigate weapon based toys and their source both online and constructed while testing memory and image response.The interweaving of innocence with implied threat, the mixing of the obviously untrue with the unstated possibility of meaning, draws upon influences such as Boyd Webb and Joan Fontcuberta. The desire for the unreal to become true and to therefore question our understanding of truth within the photograph is intrinsic to the embedded narrative of the imagery. The work can be viewed either literally or, because of the spectator’s life experience, as a metaphor and memory jog.The works shown in this exhibition were titled as part of the series, all 59.4 cm x 84 cm.