Josephine Turalba
Makabayan, 2014
356 pcs. empty shotgun, 270, 243 and 9mm caliber brass bullet shells
33 x 22 x 11 cm
Scandals, ongoing since 2012, is a series of footwear worn by exhibition viewers. Made of spent bullet cartridges sewn together to form sandals in various shapes and colours, the works,...
Scandals, ongoing since 2012, is a series of footwear worn by exhibition viewers. Made of spent bullet cartridges sewn together to form sandals in various shapes and colours, the works, while beautiful sculptural objects, are painful to wear as the metal ridges of the used bullet shells dig unpleasantly into soles and heels. Even the most gingerly light walk around the space causes pain. Guns and gun violence are pervasive in the Philippines, a legacy of American colonialism, among others. The country’s modern history is punctuated by decades of martial law and state and para-state sponsored violence against citizens, some as recent as this century, and the artist herself witnessed gun violence as a child. Josephine Turalba’s Scandals, through participants drawn to their discarded bullet casing beauty and wearability, foster reflection on trauma, violence, power imbalances, and endurance: weapons transformed into accessible and aestheticised totems of resilience and resistance.