Fire-At-Both-Ends Automatic Handgun
Wang Luyan
王鲁炎
Production date
2003
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
150 x 210 cm
Notes
Fire-At-Both-Ends Automatic Handgun is designed so that when the trigger is pulled the gun shoots two bullets in opposite directions, killing both shooter and the target. Who is the perpetrator and who is the victim? This work is one of a series that explores the concept of paradox, a preoccupation of Wang Luyan’s since 1990, when he made a simple drawing of a horizontal line wrapped by red thread that simultaneously pulls it up and down. This idea that one action can result in two contradictory reactions became the driving theory behind much of his work. Wang says, ‘I value paradox because it is the basic mode of existence for human society.’ Wang’s focus in a series of paintings was on mechanical manifestations of paradox, representing impossible guns, military tanks or other machines but subverting their intended purpose.
Accession number
2007.069