Sarah Frost @ the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.

Part of the Great Rivers Biennial 2010.  Sarah brings us hand made paper replicas of weapons.  "Arsenal" is a sculptural installation depicting violence made impotent through cut paper and tape.  The viewer enters into a floating canyon of AK-47's, Uzis, Tech 9's, handguns, hunting rifles, 50-caliber tripod mounted machine guns, Thompson sub-machine guns and grenade launchers and shells.  This reminds me of sort of an absurd child's mobile floating over a crib.  I was amused and moved by the broader implications of tools of violence depicted in such a harmless and whimsical way. Given that our nation is in a state of perpetual war and our citizens are all too often killed and mutilated by our own homegrown gun violence, the installation possesses broad implications in regard to the impact of guns and violence in our collective consciousness. Born out of adolescents building paper weapons found on YouTube. These images deliver yet another element of innocence to serious and dangerous subject matter.Visit www.camstl.org and www.sarahfrost.info/