Some words on the banana project...

 For the banana project (its temporary title), I glued 9mm bullet casings to 22 bananas so that they took a phallic form disguising they were bananas, they looked instead like curved metal porcupine-ish objects made of radiating bullets.  Each banana I placed into its own rectangular plastic sealed box, so that the banana stood upright. I then compiled the bananas together to form a wall.

Close up of two sealed boxes of bullet banana construction.  First day of construction (no decay)

Bullet bananas in residency space.  The organization of the boxes changed a few times.

The initial idea behind it was a comment on the statistic of 22 US veteran suicides a day. The following points explain how the imagery corresponds with the intent:

• First, the idea of gluing bullet casing on a banana, is ridiculous. The absurdity of the act alludes to the absurdity of the present situation regarding veterans returning from multiple deployments to a war that called upon them many times with promise of aftercare, only to find the VA failing them.  
• Using a basic form of food, such as the banana, worked to signify a form of nourishment, 'that which feeds you'.  
• The shape of the banana, most phallic of all fruit, represented the hyper-masculinity inherent in military culture.
• As an institution, the military deconstructs the civilian and re-builds them as soldier, in so giving them an armor, both literally and figuratively as pertaining to the effectiveness of military training and the ability of that soldier to act in extreme situations.
• Visually and symbolically the bullets on the bananas represent this armor.
• However, separated from the others and placed into the clear boxes, the bullets, or armor, begins to weigh them down. As now on display, decaying from the inside while we can only see the armor, holding its shape (as I made a standing structure out of the individual clear boxes, 22 of them, so that viewers can inspect them easily, as well the decay happens slowly over time).

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• In his TED talk Sebastian Junger speaks of the military as being a tribal like society in that they are taught to operate as a unit, camaraderie being the bind that keeps them going, especially in the worst experiences. After separation they return to American society which does not operate like a unit, but rather for the benefit of the individual. The veteran then feels total isolation from this, having experienced how lethal that existence can be. It is not the malfunction of the veteran, but modern society.  To over-valorize the veteran and hold them to a 'special' status then further ostracizes them from society as a whole. 

During the residency, more ideas came out of this and it generated lots of great thought and discussion, to include themes not as military specific. Such as impermanency, the passage of time, the grotesque, and the idea that the slowly changing landscapes inside each box were themselves a type of painting.  It was suggested I do time-lapse videos of them or photograph them.  While at the residency I experimented with quickly photographing them and the outcome was promising.  I would like to continue with this, although with actual photography equipment.

These three following pictures are three weeks into decay (notice the 'bleeding' of the banana juices and mold. As well the patina of the casing brass):

Of course moving overseas impeded my immediate experimentation with the bananas as I could not get them through customs for many obvious reasons. They are left and stored in Florida where they surely have melted and are decayed. Becoming something different then they once were, still in their separate boxes, now hidden away in a Florida basement.  I am quite excited to discover their state the next time I see them.