S P E N T     B U L L E T S    &   J E W E L R Y




In 1979 .38 caliber spent bullets were gathered from the 100th Street New York Police Department firing range in a Utopian gesture to turn deadly weapons into art. They were made into jewelry to be worn on the outside, controverting their purpose.     

In 2003 on the eve of the Iraq War, in protest a performance titled Fire was created by inviting audience members to take a .38 caliber NYPD slug from a red "fire" bucket. Then each was put into a velvet jewelry bag that the artist had signed, numbered and titled, INFINITY in a second Utopian gesture.

In 2015/2016 slugs were scanned and 3D printed in resin thirty times their size to create sculptures. Each was coated with either red gold, bronze, aluminum, lemon gold, white gold or rubber,once again in a gesture to "Make art, not war."

Charles Stuckey: "The color is rather intensified by the play of light. As it turns out, the contorted form of the exploded bullet has so many inconsistencies, so many twists and turns, that it’s the play of light over the surface that turns it into something rather kinetic.

The artist: Besides the political aspect, actual shot bullets were chosen because they embody velocity and impact. They’re formed in target practice by hitting a steel plate at 45 degrees, then ricochet to another plate set at 90 degrees and fall into a bed of sand where they’re collected to be recast for practice or for their purpose."

                                   
 

Spent Bullet [Toyota Blue 2004], 2015/04, Edition of 2,
ABS resin, car paint, 9 ½ x 24 x 22 inches.

The following New York Police Department .38 caliber slugs were blown-up to between 23-27 inches by 3D printing in resin. Then each resin sculpture was coated with red gold, bronze, aluminum, lemon gold, white gold, rubber or car paint.		  

Spent Bullet [Porsche Formula 2018], 2015/21, Edition of 2, ABS resin, car paint, 10 ½ x 27 ½ x 26 ½ inches.
Collection of Antony Blinken, Secretary of State,State Department, Washington, D.C..

  

Guilty Marks and Spent Bullets, Thomas Rehbein, Cologne, 2018
Chinese Plume, 1991 and Spent Bullet [Double Bronze], 2015/16

Guilty Marks, Thomas Rehbein Gallery Cologne, 2018/19


 

Spent Bullet [Mercedes Chartreuse 2018], 2015/18, Edition of 2, ABS resin, car paint,
8 ½ x 18 ½ x 16 ½ inches.

Spent Bullet [Mercedes Sakhir Orange 2018], 2015/18, Edition of 2,
ABS resin, car paint, 8 x 25 ½ x 17 inches.

  

Spent Bullet [Mercedes Sakhir Orange 2018], 2015/18
Guilty Marks [Red & Web], 2017

Guilty Marks and Spent Bullets, Thomas Rehbein, Cologne, 2018

  

Spent Bullet [Red Gold], 2015/16, ABS resin, 18 carat gold over copper and nickle plating,
8½ x 18½ x 16½ inches, re-covered with Mercedes 2018 car paint.

Spent Bullet [Double Bronze], 2015/16, ABS resin, bronze plating, 13 ¼ x 26 ¼ x 26 ¾ in.

 

Spent Bullet [Double Bronze], 2015/16 and Contingency [Quickquid], 2012

Unintended Consequences, Danese Corey Gallery, New York, 2016

  

Spent Bullet [Aluminum I], 2015/16, Edition of 2, ABS resin, aluminum paint, 9 ½ x 20 x 16 ½ inches.

Edition No. 1: Collection of Judith Pisar, New York

  

Spent Bullet [Aluminum II], 2015/16, Contingency [Snow Cracks], 2015, Collection of Leah Pisar, New York;
Spent Bullet [Aluminum I], 2015/16, Collection of Judith Pisar, New York; Spent Bullet [Dum Dum II], 2015/16
and Spent Bullet [Dum Dum I], 2015/16

Unintended Consequences, Danese Corey Gallery, New York, 2016

  

Spent Bullet [Lemon Gold], 2015/16, Edition of 2, ABS resin, 18 carat lemon gold, 8 ½ x 23 ¼ x 16 inches.		  

Guilty Marks [Japanese Silver], 2017/18 and Spent Bullet [Lemon Gold], 2015/18

Guilty Marks and Spent Bullets, Thomas Rehbein, Cologne, 2018		  

Spent Bullet [Dum Dum I], 2015/16, Edition of 2, ABS resin, rubber, 8 x 26 x 14 inches.

Spent Bullet [White Gold], 2015/16, Edition of 2, ABS resin, 6 carat white gold, 10 ½ x 26 ½ x 16 ¼ inches.

Spent Bullet [Toyota Blue 2004], 2015/18, Edition of 2, ABS resin, 10 ½ x 26 ½ x 16 ¼  inches.

 

SPENT, Zone2Source, Amstel Park, Amsterdam, 2016
Negative Ions II, 1996/2016 and Spent Bullets, 2015/2016

  

Spent Bullet, 1979, a New York Police Department .38 caliber slug with brass tie clip, hand made velvet bag;        Revisited on the eve of the Iraq War in 2003. 

 

  

Box designed by the artist     

 

  

Spent Bullet, one of 44 editions in BRADSHAW, Limited Box Edition, 2003
A .38 caliber New York Police Department shot bullet welded onto copper sheet 9 x 12 inches.

  
Spent Bullet, 1979                       
.38 caliber lead bullet, wound gauze, painted box 3 ¼ x 3 ½ inches.
Estate of Merce Cunningham, New York

 

  

Spent Bullets, 1979                       
.38 caliber lead bullets with an 18 carat gold bullet

 

On left a .38 silver slug that was crimped into a cartridge shot and retrieved by the artist at a Bronx, New York City Police firing range. There the police shoot at a paper target of a man who stands legs spread with both hands holding a gun aimed directly at the shooter. On the heart there is a circular target that is specifically aimed at at a 60 foot distance. The shot bullets are collected, melted down and reused. These kinds of bullets are designed only to kill humans. Every spent bullet that is retrieved is one less used to aim at a person. Next to the shot slug is shown one of the NYPD .38 caliber bullets.

  

INFINITY, 1979/2002, a .38 caliber slug with copper casing (added for the shooter to avoid touching lead), velvet bag 2 3/4 x 1 3/4, signed,
dated and numbered. At the Gary Tatintzian Gallery, New York in 2003 on the eve of the United States's entrance into the Iraq
War, the artist created a performance titled Fire. From a "fire" bucket of .38 NYPD shot bullets, the audience was invited to
take one, which was then put into a velvet bag inches, signed and numbered ironically by the artist.
The title reveals a Utopian leaning.

                  

  

Spent Bullets, 1979/2012
Twelve .38 caliber New York Police lead slugs, a 22 carat gold cast of a slug.  
        

 

Spent Bullets, 1979
Edition of 12, 1979, self-published, 24 carat gold vermeil over silver.                

Edition of 8, 2015, 18 carat gold earrings cast from a .38 caliber lead bullet 
Edition No. 1: Collection of  Betsy Pitts, New York and Palm Beach
Louisa Guiness Gallery, London            

  

Spent Bullet Earrings, 1979
Edition of 25, 1979, self-published                
Silver cast from a .38 caliber lead bullet 

  

Spent Bullet Earrings, 1979
Edition of 25, 1979, self-published,                
20 carat gold cast from a .38 caliber lead bullet 

  

Tanguy Current, 2010
Single earring: brass shaving with 18 karat gold clip, 6 inch height

Tanguy's work…is all about broken spirals and shifting light.

Charles Stuckey, Head of Research of the Yves Tanguy Catalogue Raisonné, former curator at the National Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Museum of Art and The Kimbel Art Museum.

  

Tanguy Current, 2010
Worn by Anya Galina, 2010

  

Thorn Cross, 2011
Rubber single earring, 6 inch height.

  

Thorn Cross, 2011
Worn by Roman Darkholm, 2015

 

Mercury Pulse, 2001
7 drops of mercury in a handblown glass vial, sealing wax, silver ring
and circlet; circlet: 5 ½ inch diameter. When worn the mercury tranmits the heartbeat.

 

  
Mercury Pulse and the top designed and worn by the artist
Six Continents, Solway/Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, 2005


Art  & Life, 2003
24 carat gold, natural pyrite crystal, .3/8 inch cubes each.
Collection of Heidi Nivling and Larry Becker, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  

Self Interest [Silicon], 1999
Edition of 10, Editions Fawbush, New York     
Silicon in the amount that occurs in a 100 pound human body, housed in a handblown glass
vial etched with the word 'silicon,' silver ring, chain and clasp, glass stopper; vial: 1 ¼ inches.

  

H20, 1999
Edition of 10, Editions Fawbush, New York
Water, handblown glass vial etched with the symbol H20,
rubber stopper, silver ring, chain, clasp; vial: 1 ¼ inches.

  

Life & Art, 2014
Natural pyrite crystal,18 carat gold, each cube 7/8 inches long.

  

Spent Bullet Cufflinks, 2015
.38 caliber slugs from the New York Police Firing Range.

Spent Bullet Cufflinks, 2015
Edition of 12, self-published
24 carat green gold vermeil over silver casts of
.38 caliber slugs from the New York Police Firing Range.

  

Art & Death, 2014
.38 caliber spent lead bullet and a 22 carat gold cast.

 .


Art & Life II, 2003/2020, 18 carat white gold and a natural pyrite crystal
earrings to hook over the ear.