Al Farrow gets his bones and guns second hand. The San Francisco-based artist puts his engineering background to good use as he squashes bullets into roof shingles and pistols into church door frames. The majestic flying buttresses of his Gothic-style mausoleum are guns, too. A Catholic-style reliquary is bedazzled with blue-green bullets, a fitting final resting place for the skull of a fictitious Patron Saint of War. And a sculpture of Christ is crucified on a fighter jet.
As war and conflict rage around the world, the artworks at “Loaded,” Farrow’s solo exhibition at VISU Contemporary Gallery on South Beach, are as relevant as ever. But his artistic inspiration is a tale as old as time.
“All the religions are equally guilty in the hypocrisy of using religion to incite people to fight, and that goes all through history and prehistory. It’s that particular hypocrisy that really affects me,” Farrow said. “You look at the 10 Commandments and it says, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Well, all the religions send their chaplains into the army, bless the soldiers and tell them God’s on their side. God’s on everybody’s side.” Read the entire article at the Miami Herald.
