Bodies Left Behind
15’ 7”’ x 30’ 2” x 30’ 2”
Airplane wings, aluminum, fabricated steel
2017
2017 FSP/Jerome Fellows
Artist Statement
Crossing is a potent act psychologically and socio-politically. The idea comes to light further when one crosses borders. Passing through Borders can have dire consequences if the body who is crossing them does not uphold the privilege that makes borders for those who enjoy it merely formalities and something invisible. Human desire of being mobilized has even taken up wings as a result of the imagination of generations resonating in our minds to fly beyond the sunrise or sunset, beyond the horizon and the oceans where dreams of being free begin. However this simple desire becomes almost a nightmare based on one’s place of birth or the color of skin. Although the dream knows no border, no geography, no color, it does not care for confinement or for restrictions even if that dream comes with high price even if it is leaving something dear behind. In a way immigration can have such connotations; it is a dilemma of body in which things around one stop to happen mostly based on one’s qualifications, potentials and dreams. They happen due to the place of birth and the color of skin. This disorientation can be so deep as if the body is like being left behind and this vessel has just carried the dreams to a new land, the wings have crossed over but the body has been left behind.
Our wings are suspended and strained under a dome in which in Iranian culture has been a symbol of oneness of the universe while it contains countless dazzling patterns, shapes and qualities. This oneness while being so vary is what makes our world a wonderful place.
Pedram Baldari
Born: Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran, 1981
Resides: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Education
MFA, Texas Tech University, 2015
BA, University of Tehran, 2005
Nooshin Hakim Javadi
Born: Qazvin, Iran, 1983
Resides: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Education
MFA, University of Minnesota, 2017
BFA, University of Tehran, 2008