"Variations of Sounds, Travelling Between a Barrel and a Heart"
has been in development since 2018. I took an interest in starting this project when I learned about a Gun Buy Back program in Minneapolis called "ART IS MY WEAPON." I acquired 12 decommissioned gun parts from the Minneapolis Police Department and stored at Pillsbury United Communities located in Northeast Minneapolis in order to convert them into musical wind instruments. (Videos down below).
Having grown up in an active war zone (Iran/Iraq and Kurdistan Civil war in Iran), I learned too early to be resourceful with objects we could salvage. I remember walks with my friends when we would collect bullet shells, gun parts and other parts of killing devices. We turned them into pen holders, whistles, and other strange objects of the imagination.
We were Kurds, witness to the ends of too many gun barrels because of our identity, our language and culture. With "Variations of Sounds, Travelling Between a Barrel and a Heart", I strive to connect my experiences to gun violence in the United States in order to create objects that heal. I created six wind instruments from the gun barrels I received, and with a group of musicians and composers we collaboratively developed compositions for the instruments. This involved extensive fine tuning of these -hard to command- alloys. The sounds each barrel makes is unique and does not match standard Western notation. I was looking for a Kurdish Shimshal touch in some of the compositions. Shimshal is a music form played by shepherds and locals in Kurdistan. In some of the pieces, I believe we have achieved that goal. Each barrel has a storage case crafted to the size and shape of the actual gun from which the barrel was taken. This gives viewers a sense of the type of gun each barrel was taken. I was fascinated with what sounds a gun can make besides "die die die."What you see here is our first performance at the Target Studio for Collaboration curated by Boris Oicherman at the Weisman Art Museum.
has been in development since 2018. I took an interest in starting this project when I learned about a Gun Buy Back program in Minneapolis called "ART IS MY WEAPON." I acquired 12 decommissioned gun parts from the Minneapolis Police Department and stored at Pillsbury United Communities located in Northeast Minneapolis in order to convert them into musical wind instruments. (Videos down below).
Having grown up in an active war zone (Iran/Iraq and Kurdistan Civil war in Iran), I learned too early to be resourceful with objects we could salvage. I remember walks with my friends when we would collect bullet shells, gun parts and other parts of killing devices. We turned them into pen holders, whistles, and other strange objects of the imagination.
We were Kurds, witness to the ends of too many gun barrels because of our identity, our language and culture. With "Variations of Sounds, Travelling Between a Barrel and a Heart", I strive to connect my experiences to gun violence in the United States in order to create objects that heal. I created six wind instruments from the gun barrels I received, and with a group of musicians and composers we collaboratively developed compositions for the instruments. This involved extensive fine tuning of these -hard to command- alloys. The sounds each barrel makes is unique and does not match standard Western notation. I was looking for a Kurdish Shimshal touch in some of the compositions. Shimshal is a music form played by shepherds and locals in Kurdistan. In some of the pieces, I believe we have achieved that goal. Each barrel has a storage case crafted to the size and shape of the actual gun from which the barrel was taken. This gives viewers a sense of the type of gun each barrel was taken. I was fascinated with what sounds a gun can make besides "die die die."What you see here is our first performance at the Target Studio for Collaboration curated by Boris Oicherman at the Weisman Art Museum.
down below is a 34 minutes (Sectioned version) of an hour and a half performance.
The gun rack serves as studio rehearsal placement of the barrels. To see the cases refer to the videos above.
