Agnieszka Polska’s The Leisure Time of a Firearm

As picture begins to sway and rock in Agnieszka Polska’s The Leisure Time of a Firearm, 2015, we hope for a steady hand. No blinking, we enter on the ultimate stalemate, a pupil very literally looking down the barrel of a gun. Despite being on the edge of tremendous violence, the eye remains steady and offers no emotion; the excitement and anxiety are brought to the table by us. The action starts slow, deliberate, then the image swells and rolls, before coming to a near stop. Order restores itself, the swells nearly stop, but then we hit a fluid flurry. The indefinable stress takes us away from our consciousness, our own steadiness.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website