One of my current favorite pieces by Marcus Wittmers shown at Gitte Weise Gallery (show just ended). Yes, it’s real! A stone M4A1 carved/sculptured from an old tombstone.

Marcus Wittmers
Waffenruhe / Ceasefire (M4A1) 2007
Belgian Granite
92 x 94 x 14 cm
(picture copyright by the artist)

… In Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) a series the artist has been working on since the year 2000), the ideas appear with great clarity due to the use of gravestones carved open to reveal almost hyper-realistic images of handguns of types used all over the world today. With this clearly executed shifting of context (the stones are salvaged from waste piles in Berlin’s cemeteries), the artist gives access to various levels of intellectual interpretation of the work.On one hand, the sculptures are surprising, as somehow, these menacing pistols on the rough surface of the stone look seductive with their skilful and precise reproduction. To achieve this effect, the Berlin artist uses Belgian granite, a material which reproduces the colour and texture of the weapons strikingly realistically. On the other hand, the pleasure of the moment is also filled with its dark side – fleetingness, death, finality. The graves and pistols reveal this unsettling dimension, and in turn because of the title Ceasefire, are given what one would almost like to describe as a physical and poetic serenity, hope-inspiring closure: may the weapons be laid to rest.

read on / full exhibition description
More pics

Gitte Weise Gallery
Tucholskystrasse 47
10117 Berlin
Germany