Banned Whips of the Unhoused Get Display at the Holland Project Gallery
Locally made whips on the wall at the Holland Project Gallery on 140 Vesta Street as part of an ongoing exhibit called “Whip Craft: Illegal Art of Downtown Reno”, until April 18th with a reception April 1st at 6 p.m..
Here's a statement from the organizers which looks back at an anti whip ordinance for which Reno was made fun of nationally.
"In October 2021 the City of Reno banned the possession of bullwhips. Though this move seemed like a wacky oddity to the national press (with headlines in AP, New York Magazine, Daily Mail and many more), it was in fact a reaction to an unlikely cultural phenomenon unique to Reno," the press release for the exhibit indicates.
"Leading up to that vote, the sonic booms of whips had become ubiquitous in downtown -- these were the audible representation of an underground culture of whip making and cracking by some of Reno’s most vulnerable residents living on the banks of the Truckee River. The sound became flashpoint in the city’s housing crisis. Leading to heated debate at city council, and hours of 911 calls, the whips were seen as a simple nuisance or, in the eyes of some online, the tool of an absurdist fictional folk hero called the “Reno Whip Man.” However, there was no such singular figure; the whips were instead part of an entire community of whip makers with unique styles, expression and aesthetics.
Unlike traditional bullwhips, which are typically made of leather or rawhide (and for Australian whips, kangaroo hide), the bullwhips of Reno’s unhoused community are made with scavenged materials, including string, rope, chain, and, on most of them, neon and day glow shades of para-cord. This exhibit features whips as art objects and tell the story of their unlikely origins and criminalization.
Whip Craft comes from The Department of Theoretical Public Works, a new artist collective based in the American West. This collaboration features exhibit designer Eleanor Qull (independent designer, sound artist, and maker), and Fil Corbitt (radio journalist and audio artist // The Wind, NPR, BBC and creator of the audio documentary “Whip Law” which aired nationally on Snap Judgement).
The exhibit features whips from several Reno whip artists. The show is on view until April 18th. Gallery hours and more information at https://hollandreno.org/hp-gallery/."
In our own reporting in the years before the ordinance passed, locals told us they made and used whips as a way to communicate, to let others know of incoming dangers, as self-pride or simply to pass time.
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