Edward O’Shea

My inspiration for this work was the piece "What would you do if these crackers were real pistols" (1977} by F.X. Harsono. F.X. Harsono (born in 1949) is one of Indonesia's most revered contemporary artists he has been a popular figure in the art scene for over 40 years in 1975 he was among the group of artist that founded Indonesia's new art movement. The piece was relevant at the time because it was shown when Indonesia was under a regime led by president Suharto. This piece allowed people to remain anonymous while explaining their anger towards the president some going as far to state that they would take a gun and shoot Suharto.

I enjoyed the piece because you can go through the book and see what people say. I decided to use the number "1" because 1 million guns have been destroyed in Australia. This is because of Australia's strict firearms regulations after the port Arthur shooting this is relevant to me since I am a proud Australian. Secondly I chose "8" because an estimated 8 million Australians have experienced violence since the age of 15. Finally I chose "3" because there are 3 million registered firearms in Australia.

I decided to focus on past and present in my piece this is because of how the installation has grown from a piece of protest to a simple interactive art piece. I used repeated symbols like bullets and foam darts to contrast each other and contrasting colours to create a feeling of opposites. I used stencilling to create my symbols and sponges to create the paints squares. I also created a wash for the background. My piece tells a story of the old violent world and how the present reflects that by being a playful happy life we're violence is forgotten. This piece is a commentary on the freedom that the world has now compared to the past.