Wilhelm Sasnal

Wilhelm Sasnal, an artist from Tarnow, Poland, was in residence during March and April 2005. For his exhibition at the Locker Plant, he created an elaborate piece requiring a gun permit, blow torches, and the services of a local teenage punk band. The artist blackened out the windows of the Locker Plant, leaving small slits for visitors to peer through, used a handgun to shoot holes in one wall of the exhibition space, then scattered hundreds of spent bullet casings on the floor. Upon entering the darkened space, visitors saw rectangles of light, created by the slits in the masking, move slowly across the walls of the room. As they advanced, visitors stirred the bullet shells on the floor, filling the room with a gently tinkling, metallic wash of sound. Peering through the slits in the masking, visitors inside the installation caught fragmentary glimpses of Marfa scenery, while those outside the building could look in to see small flashes of light reflect off the shells on the floor. With its complex interplay of reflected light, bullet holes, and shells, the installation suggested both a large-scale camera obscura and a crime scene. Throughout the exhibition, a local punk/heavy metal band, SPIC, played in the back courtyard.

Sasnal has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Recent venues include Sadie Coles, London; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Muenster; Kunsthalle Zürich; and the Anton Kern Gallery, New York.