Pedram Baldari Studio

"Variations of Sounds, Traveling Between a Barrel and a Heart" (Ongoing Project).
The project started when I learned about a Gun Buy Back program in Minneapolis called "ART IS MY WEAPON." I acquired parts from the Pillsbury United Communities located in Northeast Minneapolis, which were decommissioned by the Minneapolis Police Department. Through conducting research on the acoustics of wind instruments, I began to develop them into wind instruments. This process was done in the most minimal way possible to avoid obscuring the physical presence of the guns used in the project. This decision was made to ensure the instruments would be instantly recognized for what they were and not lose their characteristics through the process.

Having grown up in an active war zone (Iran/Iraq and Kurdish ethnic cleansing), 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 end 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 war and occupation of my homeland by military means to issues of gun violence in the United States. The sounds each barrel makes are unique. I was looking for a Kurdish Shimshal touch in some of the designs. Shimshal is a woodwind instrument 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 from.