Drill

Drill takes the form of a three-channel video installation with stylized documentary footage of a historian, activists, and a marching band in a work that homes in on gun violence in America, with a consideration of the Armory and the founding of the National Rifle Association. Added to that is a focus on the venue itself: a cavernous building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with transcendent architecture and luminous features conceived by a team that included Louis Comfort Tiffany—and also an ugly history connected to militarism and wealth in a city long separated in terms of rich and poor. Steyerl’s skill at editing, honed over close to two decades, does not fail her as Drill expertly weaves between the history of its setting and gun violence at Columbine, Parkland, and Newtown. The majority of the video features its protagonists walking or marching through the Armory, explicating its history and telling Steyerl of the resultant trauma of recent tragedies. Drill is a master class in how to draw links between seemingly unlike ideas. Created in the tradition of Harun Farocki and Chris Marker, it’s yet another essential work from Steyerl—and a must-see in an otherwise quiet summer season in New York. - Artnews