Artwork incorporating AK-47 assault rifles have been banned from entering the country through Texas — a state with open carry gun laws.
The three pieces – which were slated to be part of an exhibition this week in Houston – were seized by US customs officials and won’t be released, according to London-based artist Bran Symondson.
The art, titled “Spoils of War,” “Beat of a Wing” and “Virtue of the Vicious,” were fashioned from decommissioned assault rifles captured in war zones from Afghanistan to Syria.
Symondson, a reportage photographer who served in Afghanistan, blasted the US government for the art seizure.
“It is ironic that the law permits US citizens to go and buy a new, live weapon which I could, in theory, use to create one of my artworks from, which then could technically be used in its intended form but will not allow my pieces of harmless art into the country,” said Symondson, 45, according to the London Evening Standard.
Texas law allows people with the appropriate licenses to carry handguns, shotguns and rifles.
Symondson said that the guns used to create the pieces were no longer able to be used as weapons.
“It is unfortunate that I am unable to exhibit – particularly as the pieces are created from decommissioned AK-47s, which were captured on route from Afghanistan to Syria, completely harmless and unusable as weapons,” said Symondson, a 2011 winner of the Amnesty International Media Award.
The “Spoils of War” piece is made of an AK-47 plastered in burned $1 bills, while the two other artworks are of guns adorned in butterflies.
The “Virtue of the Vicious” piece features a magazine with empty rounds boasting items depicting Texas history including a blood-stained pink cloth to represent the infamous pink suit Jackie Kennedy Onassis wore when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
The pop-up Houston exhibition at the La Colombe d’Or Hotel is being hosted by the Maddox Gallery in London – the same gallery that displayed a controversial portrait depicting Donald Trump in the buff with a small manhood.
