Red Dot I

“Firearms are devices that are designed for attack or defense, for signaling, for hunting, for remote injection, for tagging, or for sport or play, and in which projectiles are propelled through a barrel” (German Weapons Act BGBl. I 2002, 3994 – 3998).

The photographic work Red Dot I by Sebastian Wanke consists of photographs of private and sporting firearms that originated from authorities, security institutions, and the military. The owners of the weapons wish to remain anonymous. Wanke contacted them through shooting clubs and photographed the weapons either in the clubs or in private homes.

The artist first became aware of this topic in 2018 through a report on Deutschlandfunk radio: “More than one billion handguns are in circulation worldwide. There are more handguns in the world today than a decade ago — and 85 percent of them belong to civilians. That’s according to the Small Arms Survey (as of 2018). The most privately owned handguns per capita are in the U.S. — more than one per resident on average, 120 per 100 residents” (Clement 2018).

The artistic depiction of the weapons as aestheticized objects elicits ambivalent feelings of disgust and revulsion as well as fascination and attraction with regard to the complex and controversial meanings and physical potency of the weapons. Each individual photograph is called after the name of the manufacturer, caliber, and any visible attachments such as optics, aiming devices, and grips. Some of the weapons were manufactured by the Italian company Benelli, which in addition to firearms, like the riot gun (here it is the M3 Super 90), which is used by the military and authorities in the suppression and “pacification” of urban riots and by eviction or special task units around the world, also produces sports cars and motorcycles in its line of luxury products. With existential effectiveness, the weapon demonstrates that it is a symbolic expression of hierarchal power relations. Representing it aesthetically as a product, points to the consumerist and capitalist affluence of this country, which violently defends and sustains the existential oppression of others. The aestheticization of violence as well as the fetishization of weapons stand here for the duplicity of our modern, humanistic politics of values and morals, thereby inviting us to reflect on ourselves.