Robert Klein Gallery is pleased to announce the debut of The Future Passed, an important new body of work by New York City-based artist Arne Svenson, on view for the first time from March 30 through April 2nd at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, and now viewable online here.

Incidents of gun violence and children being killed by guns are increasing at an alarming rate. An average of four U.S. children a day are killed by a gun. New York based artist Arne Svenson is horrified to see images of the victims and incidents. But like so many others, he becomes unwittingly immune to their impact. To reawaken his and our outrage, Svenson looks at the issue from a chilling vantage point - rather than portraying the victims, he shows anonymous photographs of the childrens' homes where the killings have yet to happen. Guided by an endless stream of data from the Gun Violence Archive, he locates the young victim's address and, using an online street-view program, shows us a haunting image of the future crime scene. As all street-view photographs contain the month and year they were taken, Svenson is able to search and find images that depict the scene prior to the lethal incident. His appropriated images are thus a step back in time, before the violence, showing the places where the killings will happen and where a child will be robbed of their future.

As in Svenson’s other work, by presenting only the place, he gives viewers the opening sentence, the first paragraph of a haunting narrative that they must complete on their own. But the inescapable fact in this narrative is that at least one child will be killed in each place we are viewing. And that there is a possibility that the victim is alive and well during the moment the house was photographed; playing in his or her room or, perhaps, hiding in that same room from his or her future killer. Viewers are expected to see through these blank windows and visualize the child within – Arne Svenson is counting on our empathy and imagination. His hope is that by seeing where a preventable death will happen, the viewer may be galvanized to circumvent similar occurrences in the place(s) next door. Already having documented hundreds of children's deaths over the last several years, this is an ongoing project where Svenson sees no end. A portion of the artist's proceeds will be donated to an online gun-violence project that brings awareness and transparency to this tragic issue.

The Future Passed

Arne Svenson in the NY Times Arts Section

"Were These Photographs Voyeurism, or Art?"
By Arthur Lubow

The Photography Show (AIPAD)

SAVE THE DATE

Venue:

Center415 - 415 5th Avenue
(between 37th and 38th streets)
New York, NY 10016

Dates & Hours:
-Thursday, March 30 | 12:00pm - 8:00pm
(VIP Opening Preview)
-Friday, March 31 | 12:00pm - 7:00pm
-Saturday, April 1 | 12:00pm - 7:00pm
-Sunday, April 2 | 12:00pm - 5:00pm

https://www.aipad.com/show

AIPAD ONLINE