Shot Through

How do we react when a gun is fired? Even if it is only aimed at something that is supposedly lifeless? Tom Dale raises these questions in his work Shot Through. The video begins with a drum set standing in a forest. A shot is heard. And a second. Many others follow. The editing accelerates the destruction of the drums. Through the alternating shots, the viewer witnesses the various facets of the carnage – the explosion of the wood or the denting of metal – and the issue of materiality is shifted into focus. After the hail of bullets has ceased, closeups are shown of the drum, which has been shot to pieces. Comparisons to a gutted corpse are deliberate, and the drums transformed from a thing into animal-like creatures. The forest setting is reminiscent of a hunting scene, although it is alienated from the ethics of hunting and instead portrays the execution of the objects.