Arms Disarmed – Candy

About the artwork

It’s danger made delicious. Clara Hallencreutz’s Arms Disarmed–Candy transforms a deadly revolver into a candy dispenser, in which balls of sugary treats in an array of colors seem to take away the gun’s power. Or, at least, they suggest that the revolver’s destructive energy is diminished—rather than inflicting death, it could just cause cavities. But another, even darker, possible meaning emerges, at least for viewers in the US, a nation where, according to CNN, school shootings are nearly sixty times as frequent as in the other major industrialized nations combined. How is it that young people are getting access to guns seemingly as easily as they buy gumballs?