Fractionated Lines of a Continuum — Pedram Baldari Studio

“Fractionated Lines of a Continuum”

2025, mixed media, wood, mirror, ink (black-gold-silver-bronze) on paper, 28”x34”, series of 9, (Ongoing Project).

This series emerges from contemplating the lives and stories of Kurdish political, social, and public figures. Each figure has lost their life for their belief, work, art, aspiration, or struggle at the hands of the occupying states of their homeland. These figures, while each is from a different region of Kurdistan, have been a part of a continuous struggle against the systematic oppression of their people and, in doing so, have inspired one another and millions of their people both in their lives and in their deaths. One exception in this list is Margaret Shello, an Assyrian Christian hospital worker who became the first woman to join Peshmerga forces at age 20 and rose to the rank of commander of Peshmerga quickly. She became a major inspirational figure among the Kurds, especially women. She became known as the "Joan of Arc of the Kurdish Revolution" against the Iraqi government in 60s.

The artistic process that I have employed in this series reflects the continuity of this unfolding struggle in my homeland. Therefore, the technique I used is based on Single Line Drawing (the entire drawing is a continuous unbroken line using an ink pen), by which I began the first piece depicting Qazi Muhammad (the democratically elected president of the Kurdistan Republic, who was executed by Iran in 1947) and moved the same line onto the next piece of paper and so on. What you see in this series is the first nine pieces, fully realized, each a continuation of the previous one. Once the drawing phase is finished, I research poems written about each figure, their own lives, stories, and my reflections, and utilize them in a calligraphic format, generating the texture and the composition of the artwork. After applying the gold, silver, and bronze inks, I continue the drawing using mirrorworks to entangle the piece within its surroundings and draw the audience into the work.

Each work has a unique title, for example, “Fractionated Lines of a Continuum, (The Judge),” or “Fractionated Lines of a Continuum, (The Bride),” and these names were picked based on who they were in life and my understanding of their role in this continuous line of struggle.

The title of the work contains a link to their life and story:

Image Below: The Judge/ Qazi Muhammad)”