Guns & Poses by Natalie Giungi
When a Rose Is Not Just a Rose
By: Natalie Giungi - Oct 16, 2013
Guns & Poses is a series, which takes form in a series of flowers constructed from porn magazines and gun catalogs. Each rose bush ranges between 3' to 4' in height. These pieces build on the concept of: reclaiming intimacy from pornography and violence. In deriving pleasure from pornography, one generally consumes the image without ties to its reality. Likewise, in the admiration of guns, one venerates the craft and power of the firearm without considering its full implications – the aggressive nature of a mechanism designed to kill.
The seductiveness of pornography and firearms is based in illusion, where one is free to enjoy only when partial variables are considered and not the whole. By constructing flowers (a form intrinsically feminine in nature) out of pornography and guns, Giugni is repairing perceptions that are skewed. The images appear far more violent when juxtaposed against the curves of a flower than they did between the pages of the magazines – thereby reclaiming a foothold in truth. In calling attention to themselves, the images reestablish intimacy with the viewer.
Natalie Giungi website.