Bulletproof backpack vests, gun lunch boxes and Make America Safe Again T-shirts - these are just a few of the harrowing items critiquing the nation's crisis with school shootings in a powerful art installation in New York City.
The provocative exhibit entitled 'Back to School Shopping' is the work of artist WhIsBe, set up in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.
The exhibit, which celebrated its grand opening June 6th and will run through the 30th, is a critique on the mass shootings and gun violence penetrating the school system.
The installation is set up to look like an inviting kid-friendly store with the front sign saying 'Back to School Shopping' and the windows plastered with ads featuring backpacks that are worn on the front of a student's body to double as a bulletproof vest and lunch boxes decked out with guns.
Installation artist WhIsBe has created an exhibit called 'Back to School Shopping', designed to look a store advertising shocking items like bulletproof backpack vests, Make American Safe Again shirts, and a claw machine filled with guns
The exhibit designed to look like a store is located in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, Manhattan and is a poignant commentary on gun control and mass school shootings in the U.S.
The exhibit includes T-shirts saying 'Make America Safe Again' and backpacks that are worn on the front of a student's body to double as a protective bulletproof vest
Other items in the store include lunch boxes called 'safety defense kits' outfitted with a gun, taser, first aid kit, brass knuckles and a snack of gummy bears.
Inside the store, the exhibit has a toy claw machine, but instead of being filled with furry stuffed animals and toys, it's filled with brightly colored plastic guns.
Racks of clothes in the shop bear the message 'Make American Safe Again'.
Art on the wall also play a role in the commentary, depicting plastic ball pits often found at playhouses like Chuck E. Cheese but with added plastic guns and pistols.
A picture on the wall depicts the beloved cartoon character Lucy van Pelt of Charlie Brown at her psychiatry booth where she offers advice for five cents. But in this picture the psychiatry tab has been crossed out and replaced with 'guns & ammo 5 cents'.
'An average of 47 children are shot everyday. "Back to School Shopping" is the current project by multi-media artist WhIsBe that presents us with a parody on the issue of mass school shootings, addressing the very real truth that children face a serious threat from guns in schools - with
