“SHOT UP”
A few photos from “SHOT UP”, a sculptural project currently in progress.
America seems to have given up her claim to the title “Land of the Free”; but in certain pockets of what used to be the fabled Old West, some Americans still perform a traditional ritual of Freedom, Individuality, and the Right to Bear Arms, by hauling old cars and other pieces of metal junk out to desolate areas and blasting them full of bullet holes.

In a milieu flavored with desert dust, Jack Daniels, cold Budweiser, and hot lead, the gun-toting American Individualist inadvertantly creates poignant works of art—swan songs for The American Dream, writ in holy metal. Detroit’s finest American Steel, a longtime symbol of national pride, becomes a canvas on which the shooter inscribes the traces of his passions.

As the ritual unfolds, the atmosphere of the classic Western film is evoked by the booming of gunfire in the wilderness, the eerie whine of ricochets echoing through the hills, and the occasional spirited cry of "Yee Haw!".

In “SHOT UP” I recontextualize some of the beautiful results of this quintessentially American process—and create some new pieces of my own, in a series of collaborative ritual enactments .

—Darryl Ferrucci

Exhibited March 3-31, 2006, at The Attic; 931 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
Presented by the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art.

PRESS:
Good Times, March 8th 2006
Metro Santa Cruz, March 29th 2006
Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 30th 2006

Click HERE for print-resolution press photos & postcards.

I invite your Comments.

"The passion for destruction is also a creative passion"
—Mikail Bakunin

"If we don't destroy the ruins, we won't have destroyed anything"
—Alfred Jarry