CEG is excited to introduce our next Ctrl+P: Photography Taken Offline artist, Garrett O. Hansen! Nine photographs from Garrett O. Hansen’s series, The Void, are on view in the gallery through July 1, 2016.

Void (.22 Caliber), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen                Void (.22 Caliber), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen

Void (.38 Special), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen

Garrett O. Hansen graduated from Grinnell College, where he studied economics and political science. He completed his MFA in photography at Indiana University and has taught at several universities in the United States and in Asia; he is now an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Kentucky. Garrett has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Indonesia, and Japan.

Void (.38 Special), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen

The Void

Roughly 40% of the population in the US owns a gun and there are enough guns – approximately 300 million – to arm nearly every man, woman, and child in the country.

At the core of The Void series is a desire to consider these facts and to create a set of images that speaks to their implications.  Each of the images is created from individual bullet holes.  While shooting is fundamentally a destructive act, by bringing these holes into the darkroom, enlarging them and then processing and printing the results, I am able to balance this destruction with creation.  The viewer is presented with something that speaks to the sublime – they are both attractive and terrifying at the same time.   In many ways this reflects our own opinions of guns in America, a country where the debate between rights and controls continues to rage.

Void (.40 Caliber), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen                    Void (9mm), 2015 © Garrett O. Hansen

LINKS
Juxtapoz
Wired
Light Leaked

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Ctrl+P: Photography taken offline is an exciting venture at Catherine Edelman Gallery inspired by the hundreds of photographs we see on blogs and online galleries. Started in January 2011, CEG introduces Chicagoans to new artists we find while searching the web, exhibiting a small selection of one person’s work every two months, taking the pictures offline and putting them on the wall. It is our goal that Ctrl+P will provide further exposure for these photographers away from the glow of a computer monitor and without the temptation to click to the next link. We hope you will join us by unplugging from the internet and visiting CEG to see these photographs the way they were intended — in print.