Gun violence has resulted in many tragedies that the American nation regrets, and wishes to forget. Although this may not be possible, artist and advertising art director Greg Bokorpresents a symbolic solution in "Erase," an interactive project submitted to Artprize 2013. Bokor plans to complete a 6-by-2.5-meter illustration in graphite pencil, which will allow visitors to participate in physically erasing away an image of an AR-15 rifle.
The artist was inspired and intrigued to create the project as a response to the many outbreaks of gun violence that have taken many innocent lives in past years. These events include incidents in Aurora and Columbine, Colorado, at Virginia Tech, and Newtown, Connecticut. The names and ages of victims involved in the shootings will be printed onto the pink erasers provided, in order for them to be a part of the symbolic erasing of gun violence. The piece will finally be completed once it has been erased, remaining only as a trace and without any further harm. So far, the artist has spent 300 hours in completing 80% of the large-scale illustration depicting a giant assault weapon.
In an interview with Forbes, the artist described the motivation behind his project and said, "This whole thing started after Newtown. I had to do something about it. something. Anything. I figured I am an art director in advertising, so I should at least tap into those talents. Then I came up with this idea. It has become my obsession."
[via Designboom]
