Bluffton University held an artist reception on Sunday, Feb. 23, in Grace Albrecht Gallery showcasing the art of George Cooley and Margaret Brostrom titled “Human Targets.” It was the last day for the show.
Cooley and Brostrom first thought of the project after the Michael Brown shooting in St. Louis and asked why people practice shooting people. Then the Charlottesville car attack happened, and they knew that they had to do the human targets.
The basis for some of the pieces are human target paper frequently used in shooting ranges that were modified to add a message to them. Some of them had pictures of people and others had designs on them that conveyed the message of the social justice that Cooley and Brostrom were trying to accomplish.
Some of the pieces that used the human target paper. Photo by Day’Vion Smith.
“I have always been fascinated by silhouettes,” said Brostrom. “Since my Aunt Amy had them all through her house. That was all part of my history and I love it. So, when I see a silhouette, whether it’s a painting or something, I gravitate towards it.”
There were three different groups of art, one was the normal targets made with the paper and it just had cutouts of different people or things that gave out a message. The second group of targets were mounted to appear three-dimensional. The third group was their canvas art.
“So we started doing about 50 on the paper and then we started mounting them, we did some of them with that. Then after that, we wanted to take it to our normal material, which is basically canvas and board,” said Cooley
In every piece of art that they made during their collaboration, they made sure they incorporated the target. They also worked to make sure they didn’t get sucked into debates on guns and shooting.
“We care about assault rifles and all the issues, but we also try to stay focused on this idea of why are we practicing killing people,” said Cooley. “Because we know that when you practice on something you get good at it.”
Cooley and Brostrom said they won’t do a targets project again. They are now working on another social justice topic about children at the border being separated from their parents.
