Explore Piers Secunda’s first US solo-show ISIS Bullet Holes Paintings, now open at 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel.
If Piers Secunda is sensitive toward anything, it’s time. His desire is little more than to capture the time he’s living in presently, but his approach to this is fractured and luxurious in the most unexpected way- the destruction of what should be valuable. Piers Secunda’s first solo show in the United States opened at Jaeckel Gallery to a crowd that wasn’t resistant to this approach to documentation of history. The ‘after’ of an event is just as valid as a ‘before’. This is the latest iteration of an ongoing project in which casts of bullet holes gathered by Secunda in war-torn or heavily militarized places are arranged into compositions that serve as both a record of real-world damage and a haunting reminder of the threat that contemporary armed conflict presents to our collective history. It is a stunning extension of art in the context of conflict as In late 2015, while under the protection of Peshmerga (Kurdish) soldiers, Secunda visited Iraqi villages recently liberated from ISIS and made direct casts of damage inflicted by gunfire. Secunda would place these molds into the context of historical works and against a contrasting white paint, allow the erasure to dominate and vibrate against what we understand as beauty. A percentage of sales from the show will go to Kind Aid International to directly assist families in the Iraqi villages that the artist visited help procure medical assistance, clean water and food.
The works are striking, and only enhanced by the stunning story behind them. They are presented in a museum-style quality, allowing them to exist in a proper respectable setting, but are still detailed enough to counter the minimal white and blue scheme of the space. This is not a glamorization of war, but an opportunity to consider exactly what destruction means- and the potential that culture is being lost for short-term- or no- gain. Temple of Zeus (both 2016), reveals as a sequence of discrete moments frozen in time, presented in sequential motion- letting the destruction set in an affecting and unfortunate way- allowing the viewer to see in real time what details become lost.
Piers Secunda: ISIS Bullet Holes Paintings
532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel
April 6 – May 6, 2017
Tuesday – Friday 11-6pm
Sat 12-6pm
