C IS FOR CZECH REPUBLIC

David Černý rose to prominence when he painted Prague’s Monument to Soviet Tank Crews a bright pink, retrospectively protesting the Soviet occupation. The tank has since been moved to a military museum, while David Černý continues to create defiant, controversial sculptures. His “Shark”, a reimagining of Damien Hirst’s famous plexiglass sculpture, with gagged and roped Saddam Hussein instead of the animal, was banned in some European countries for fear of being construed as islamophobic (such a wrong assessment of the work). The work pictured seems to me really great and current, especially in lieu of American gun violence, as well as the wars that my homeland Russia wages abroad. It also has a curious history, having been once exhibited in the World Trade Center in New York. Guns were later featured in Artbanka Museum of Young Art in Prague, but now that the museum has permanently closed, I’m not sure where to find it.