Louisa Bufarde­ci
Starter Pis­tols

Starter Pis­tols is an exhi­bi­tion of six bargel­lo needle­works. The design of each needle­work illus­trates sound­waves asso­ci­at­ed with var­i­ous anti-per­son­nel weapons. Each sound­wave is a mere one one-hun­dredth of a sec­ond in length and cap­tures the split-sec­ond a weapon is dis­charged. One of the designs is based on the sound of the Brown­ing 1910 hand­gun used by Gavri­lo Prin­cip to assas­si­nate the Arch­duke Franz Fer­di­nand of Aus­tria in 1914 and the oth­ers are all sim­i­lar­ly trig­ger points in history.

Needle­work has his­toric tra­di­tions almost as long as war and def­i­nite­ly longer than mod­ern weapon­ry. The labo­ri­ous, time-con­sum­ing process was not cho­sen pure­ly for its incon­gruity with the vio­lent theme, but because its man­ic rep­e­ti­tion serves as a reminder of the rep­e­ti­tious pres­ence of vio­lence and war through­out his­to­ry. While the colours employed are the typ­i­cal mut­ed greens, browns and greys asso­ci­at­ed with war­fare attire, the tight fram­ing is rem­i­nis­cent of the rigid fram­ing of any rep­re­sen­ta­tion of war.