As any quick Google Image search will prove, there seems to be a weird law in place by which action star Jason Statham would go to jail were he not pointing a gun directly at us in the posters for any of his movies. Whether such a law actually exists, however, Statham and the studios behind his films are endemic of a larger trend of characters in posters brandishing objects that kill people. One artist noticed this abundance of weaponry and decided to mock the trend by taking it to its furthest conclusion.
New York-based artist Jon Burgerman has responded to both the violent ads in subway movie posters and the rising scores of public shootings by playing the victim. In a new series of interventions, called “Headshots,” Burgerman documents himself donning fake blood and other props to portray the potential target of whoever in the poster is pointing a gun (or bow and arrow.) Whether laying on the ground in a pool of blood, or standing upright with a tortured look on his face, Burgerman seems set to remind viewers of these posters that every time there’s a shooter it means someone is probably getting shot.
We’ve seen plenty of subway poster creativity before, but rarely in service of an artistic call for social awareness. Have a look at more of these images in the slides above.
H/t to DesignTaxi
