Darius Hill

My lifelong exposure to guns, spanning my childhood through present day, fuels this work.
As a very young boy I found and repeatedly handled (without permission or supervision) a .38 revolver hidden in our bathroom. As a Boy Scout I shot a .22 rifle on a range, safe and supervised. As an adult, my multiple experiences have been at the other end of a gun barrel – at the mercy of aggressors. I remain sad and bewildered that they were also African American men. Incidents of guns pointed at me have ranged from mistaken identity to intentional, violent physical assault, robbery and most terrifyingly, being fired upon.  Still, I’m left with mixed viewpoints regarding many of the complex issues surrounding the gun debate in America. Emotions run high where firearms are concerned, and many complicated factors are driving actions at all levels, under the surface.

The components of this installation are parts of a whole that speak to one another. Similarly, we must learn to dialogue. Guns will always be in our landscape and violence remains a possibility when we lack better ways of understanding one another.