Denver Post: Ravi Zupa’s Beautiful, Dangerous Guns Have High-Profile Fans

An excerpt from my interview with Denver Post:

Ravi Zupa makes weapons for a war of words. His mock machine guns and semi-automatic rifles are recycled from parts of pre-electric typewriters that he collects, dismantles and welds back together. His bullets are concocted from pencil stubs and the pointy nibs of fountain pens.

His objects are intimidating and toy-like at the same time. They don”t actually fire — they”re art pieces. meant to evoke guns and their multiple implications — but they have chambers and barrels and triggers and, when you hold one, you sense the weight and sturdiness of an instrument built to kill.

And they look real enough to warrant recent attention from the Englewood Police Department. When Zupa”s dealers were packing up a crate of them last week to ship to an art fair in Miami, neighbors took notice and alerted authorities, who hurried to the scene.