Artist Sarah Frost has built an arsenal of paper guns, assault rifles, bazooka shells, pistols, and guns out of white copy paper and Scotch tape. She learned how to make these elaborate and highly realistic guns from a group of boys who self-publish instructional videos on YouTube. Some shoot paper darts, others have moving parts like spinning chambers and pump-action barrels. 1,400 sheets of paper are needed to make a M134 Vulcan with tripod. Frost was impressed with the boys’ ingenuity and workmanship and yet also disturbed by the knowledge the boys had about the mechanics of guns.
Frost’s solo exhibition “Arsenal” was installed at Telfair Museums’ contemporary Jepson Center in April 2013, just four months after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The Museum considered canceling or postponing the show but decided that it was “exactly the right time to present it.” The Museum is planning a panel discussion on the pervasive (and divisive) presence of guns in our culture. A sweet (toothed) guest would be the seven-year-old boy who recently suggested to Vice President Joe Biden that if guns fired chocolate bullets, no one would get hurt.