Palo Gallery is proud to present LA Gun Club, an exhibition by English photographer and
filmmaker Jane Hilton. Renowned for her work documenting American culture, Hilton has
explored the extraordinary realities of ordinary people for the past twenty-five years. Presenting a series of photographs of shooting range targets, Hilton continues her examination of subjects which blur the line between legal and social acceptability. The exhibition will be on view February 9 through March 23, 2024.
Across the United States, guns are a normal aspect of American life, providing users and
owners a leisure activity advertised as ‘sport and protection.’ More than 300 million guns are owned by Americans, who take advantage of the breadth of firearm rights, regulations, and loopholes. By inhabiting a culture in which hunting has both a mythic and popular appeal, many ordinary citizens equate gun ownership with self-reliance. Gun ranges allow individuals to shoot live ammunition at target posters with the weapon of their choice. Despite waves of tragedy that sweep regularly through American society, guns--and gun violence--remain integral to U.S. culture.
LA Gun Club was conceptualized by artist Jane Hilton while living and working in downtown Los Angeles. Hilton remembers visiting a gun club at the suggestion of her assistant, writing: “I was given a ten-minute induction, and four different guns: an AK47, a rifle, Glock, and a .44 Magnum revolver, the same gun used by Clint Eastwood in ‘Dirty Harry’. I was then handed live ammunition to fire at a target of my choice. I was terrified. I had never held a gun in my life, and my hand was shaking.”
Hilton returned to Los Angeles six months later - but instead of her initial plan to photograph personal gun collections opted for a more conceptual approach. Remembering the paper targets from the gun club, Hilton chose to examine the visual images people opted to shoot. Hilton found each of the chosen targets extraordinarily provocative; caricatured Middle Eastern men, “thuggish” burglars, and kidnappers. Deciding she could achieve a more resonant statement by interviewing the gun club shooters, Hilton took their ‘shot up’ targets back to her London studio—preparing to shoot them herself. The result is a series of photographs and their accompanying text which creates a snapshot of American attitudes towards guns, gun use, and gun ownership.
The photographs were shot on a 5 x 4 in plate camera and are printed on archival digital etch paper. Each photograph is 30 x 22 in / 76 x 57 cm and are part of an edition of 7.
Notes to Editors
LA Gun Club is the subject of Hilton’s most recent monograph, “LA Gun Club” (self-published,2016) which explores American gun culture through a collection of unique, ‘shot-up’ target posters. Other monographs include “Dead Eagle Trail" (Schilt Pub, 2010) depicting the lifestyle of the twenty-first century cowboy and "Precious" (Schilt Pub, 2013) featuring intimate nude portraits of working girls in Nevada.
