“Low Ready” takes its title from the firing position of keeping a gun in front of you with arms extended but lower than your target—a clear line of vision and ready to engage a perceived threat. Exhibited in the form of wallpaper that could then be removed and re-presented as art prints, the pattern was applied directly to the wall as reproductions of an illustration taken from a drawing series showing bear arms that insinuate holding a weapon.
By multiplying the form, the image becomes a decorative pattern indistinguishable from an ordinary domestic interior, rather than a symbol of alarm and potential violence. The key to understanding this work is in recognising the two sides of a post-war identity—it demands confronting the burdens of historical trauma alongside the desire to move on from a narrative of war into a peaceful and constructive future.
Fuzinato finds herself at odds with these two impulses. Having lived through the Bosnian War between 1992 and 1995, the cultural market in which she exists has often demanded identification with this part of her cultural and personal history. By reforming and representing these images of armed conflict in “Low Ready”, Fuzinato refuses this external expectation of engagement while acknowledging its presence.
Foto: Exshibition view at U10 art space, Belgrade and Kommunale Galerie Berlin
Foto credits: Ivan Zupanc, Nina Ivanović, Eric Tchernow