Guns in the Hands of Artists

Guns in the Hands of Artists is a 2016 book by Jonathan Ferrara, published by Inkshares. It is an adaption from the art exhibition and project created by Brian Borrello in the 1990s. CNN reported that the book "uses more than 180 decommissioned guns as raw material for works of art.""Guns in the hands of artists". CNN. December 5, 2016.
Lupe Fiasco has been cited as a contributor, where he wrote poetry:
Geometric unites necessarily shaped.
Gears unite new systems.
Graphs unpack nihilistic sins.
Going under never surprises.
Gradually unspeakable network solutions.
Growing up now sucks.
G*psies undo noble sanctities.
Ganja uploads nirvana symptoms.
Gorgonzola udon noodle sandwiches.
Graduating universities not sufficient.
Greed umbrellas normal sentiments.
Governments unprecedented nuclear sensations.
Guiding untouchables nearer salvation.
Get us n****r slaves.
Golf utilizes natural sand.
Gimmicks usually notably sell.
Getting understood nobody's safe.
== Dedication ==
This book is dedicated to the potential for art to be a catalyst for social change and to all those who are working tirelessly to make America a safer place.
== Blurb ==
In the 1990s, the New Orleans murder rate exploded. In 1996, 350 people were killed--the highest number in the city's history, and the highest rate in the nation. In response to this crisis, gallery owner and artist Jonathan Ferrara and artist Brian Borrello, launched a powerful project: Guns in the Hands of Artists. Over sixty artists, including painters, glass artists, sculptors, photographers, and poets, used decommissioned guns taken off the city streets via a gun buyback program to express a thought, make a statement, open a discussion, and to stimulate thinking about guns and gun violence in America.
As gun violence continues to devastate the nation on a daily basis, Guns in the Hands of Artists reemerged in 2012 as a community-based social activist art project that has since traveled to six cities across the US. Using art as a mirror for life and interweaving the works of thirty diverse artists with the voices of seventeen national thought leaders, this book is an important outgrowth of the exhibition and an extension of its efforts to employ art as a vehicle for dialogue, as a call to action, and--ultimately--as an agent of change.
Essays by: Walter Isaacson, Senator Tim Kaine, Lupe Fiasco, Richard Ford, Joe Nocera, Trymaine Lee, Lolis Eric Elie, John M. Barry, Dan Cameron, Lucia McBath, Harry Shearer, Jonathan Ferrara, Brian Borrello, Maria Cuomo Cole, Michael Waldman, E. Ethelbert Miller, Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly.
== Critical reception ==
Amanda Marcotte of Salon.com summarized, "Ferrara organized a clever art exhibit in 2014: Take decommissioned guns, give them to artists to remake into art and use the whole thing to kick-start a discussion about gun violence in America." Publishers Weekly praised the project for its subject matter, while Doug MacCash of The Times Picayune described it as "a good read." CEO of the Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson wrote, "This important work of art and essays will help you think about guns in a more profound way."
== References ==
Category:Books