Philip
Ringler

My Family

My Family

Philip Ringler

2024/2025

I use inflatable machine guns to make conceptual photographs as a critical response to mass shootings, gun laws, and rampant gun violence in Florida and the United States.

I weaponize humor and parody to explore the tragedy and absurdity of gun discourse through art. The use of inflatables not only softens and humanizes these deadly weapons, but is also an important part of my ongoing work to investigate simulacra, signs, and signifiers with constructed photographic "realities."

The series title "My Family" is inspired by the antagonistic bumper stickers on cars and trucks in Florida where "My Family" is printed underneath an assortment of cartoon firearms representing someone's "family."