Artist Melts 1,527 Guns And Turns Them Into Shovels For Planting Trees
Credit: Pedro Reyes
August 17, 2015 by Amanda Froelich
With project Palas por Pistolas, this artist seeks to show “how an agent of death can become an agent of life.”
Gun control is a touchy subject – and for good reason. Existing solely to wound or kill, they are a dangerous weapon, one that if not employed for reasons of necessity, may harshly rip families apart.
In Culiacán, Mexico, the city with the highest rate of gun deaths in the nation, many people know the devastating consequences these weapons can contribute to. That’s where creative activist Pedro Reyes comes in.
Reyes is an inspired artist who likes to focus on the failures of modern culture in a positive light. He doesn’t believe in failure but instead believes that failure is the outcome of a certain perspective.
With this unique perception, he transforms things people see as broken and models them in a new way.
“Failure is the outcome of a certain perspective”
Concerning guns, he felt that something positive could be transformed from their matter, and, therefore, started a campaign asking residents to hand over their guns in exchange for a coupon they could use to buy electronics or household appliances.
Credit: Pedro Reyes
What he did next will inspire you…
After Pedro collected 1,527 guns for the project, Palas pro Pistolas, he had them melted down and transformed into 1,527 shovel heads.
These new shovels were then distributed to art institutions and public schools, where people in the community are now using them to plant a minimum of 1,527 trees.
“If something is dying, becoming rotten and smelly, I think there is a chance to make a compost in which this vast catalog of solutions can be mixed in an entirely new way,” he told BOMB Magazine. In Palas por Pistolas he was aiming to show “how an agent of death can become an agent of life.”
It’s interesting to note that 40% of all the guns Reyes collected were automatics of military caliber. After the collection, they all were transported to a military base and publicly smashed with a steamroller. Then, they were melted and recycled into shovels with wooden handles. Now they exist solely for the purpose of planting trees and creating life!
Credit: Pedro Reyes
Some of the shovels have even made their way to the Vancouver Art Gallery, the San Francisco Art Institute, Maison Rouge in Paris and other locations around the world.
A shovel, like a gun, can be used for a productive purpose or a hateful one. But with inspired intent, may these tools always be utilized for the purpose of optimizing land and creating space for something new to flourish.
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Nuff said...
HEY STICK: how about some real U.S. history instead of a kids cartoon?
— Harry Alford on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 in a news conference
NRA founded to fight KKK, black leader says
Utter nonsense that’s effortlessly disproven here: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/jun/05/harry-al...
Nonetheless, a great example of the type of propaganda NRA members love to drag out to bolster their supposed 'righteous' cause. If you’re going to criticize cartoons, at least be consistent, brother Malcolm ;-) For what it's worth, Ashtar Massive, with a little training, dodging the Archontic fear-porn backbeat promoted by the likes of the NRA can become quite effortless… a natural reflex that doesn't require a gun. It starts with simply unplugging from the lies being broadcast by the MSN. ~TemetNosce247
WRONG STICK. Jim Crow laws of the south erased all history of post Civil War attacks on freed slaves by the KKK. This is why "there is no recorded proof" as your bullsh!t response asserts. But there is still some important notes that made it out of the ex-slaveowners territory:
On September 28, 1868, a mob of Democrats massacred nearly 300 African-American Republicans in Opelousas, Louisiana. The savagery began when racist Democrats attacked a newspaper editor, a white Republican and schoolteacher for ex-slaves. Several African-Americans rushed to the assistance of their friend, and in response, Democrats went on a “Negro hunt,” killing every African-American (all of whom were Republicans) in the area they could find. (Via Grand Old Partisan)
Which brings us to today… Asshat Jason Whitlock, the Kansas City columnist whose article on Jovan Belcher‘s murder-suicide inspired an anti-gun rant by NBC’s Bob Costas, now says that the pro-Second Amendment National Rifle Association is “the new KKK,” Newsbusters’ Tim Graham reported Monday.
Obviously, Whitlock is as ignorant as he is offensive. The NRA actually helped blacks defend themselves from violent KKK Democrats in the south, not the other way around. Ann Coulter wrote about the history of blacks and the NRA back in April.
This will give you an idea of how gun control laws worked. Following the firebombing of his house in 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King, who was, among other things, a Christian minister, applied for a gun permit, but the Alabama authorities found him unsuitable. A decade later, he won a Nobel Peace Prize.
How’s that “may issue” gun permit policy working for you?
The NRA opposed these discretionary gun permit laws and proceeded to grant NRA charters to blacks who sought to defend themselves from Klan violence — including the great civil rights hero Robert F. Williams.
A World War II Marine veteran, Williams returned home to Monroe, N.C., to find the Klan riding high — beating, lynching and murdering blacks at will. No one would join the NAACP for fear of Klan reprisals. Williams became president of the local chapter and increased membership from six to more than 200.
But it was not until he got a charter from the NRA in 1957 and founded the Black Armed Guard that the Klan got their comeuppance in Monroe.
Williams’ repeated thwarting of violent Klan attacks is described in his stirring book, “Negroes With Guns.” In one crucial battle, the Klan sieged the home of a black physician and his wife, but Williams and his Black Armed Guard stood sentry and repelled the larger, cowardly force. And that was the end of it.
As the Klan found out, it’s not so much fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.
The NRA’s proud history of fighting the Klan has been airbrushed out of the record by those who were complicit with the KKK, Jim Crow and racial terror, to wit: the Democrats.
Sadly, asshat Whitlock will get away with his outrageous lies. The early KKK Democrats would be proud.
Excelent, thank you, Stick .. that is a brilliant and powerfull reminder of Americas history, summed up in a very creative way. There is a huge lesson to be learned here and even through the medium of a cartoon, it still goes to show how part of the archontic agenda (guns) has throughout the centuries, seeped into the "blood system of America", (literally) and indeed, the rest of the world. The gun is like the ultimate symbol of the archontic agenda, if those archons had a flag, it would probibly display a gun on it, its like the most f***** up physical manifestation ever created, at least in a material form, a truely horrific instrument of aggression and war, used to supress and intimidate, devide and rule, a barbaric device created by insane people with insane ideas, for insane people with insane reasons for using it, for where there is no love, there is no sanity. Technology with an understanding of God is vertually unlimited, technology without an understanding of God, can be so destructive it beggars belief.
People and guns, and their horrific outcomes, the unwitting participants on the dark side of evolution, major leauge thumbs down to all of it. It would be easy to turn a blind eye, if it wasnt so "in our face'. The question arises, are we creating more of it, by talking about it? or are we merely the concious observers, remarking on a troublesome aspect of our evolution that we have probibly all expierenced, and wishing that our wayward and impetuous siblings who are still involved in it come to their senses, from a safe vantage point in our own concious awareness?.. how many are truely awake and how many are still left dreaming?.. indeed, it makes me wonder....
~Beautifully summed up, Luke... & powerful questions that we're all being forced to ponder, some consciously... some unconsciously, or even, subconsciously. I find it a bit ironic, that oftentimes, many of the people who are so passionate about their guns, are the same people who are so passionate about their 'Christian' beliefs. As they arm themselves to the teeth awaiting their Saviors return, one has to imagine, do they envision his carrying a gun? ~OneLoveRevolution
Yes indeed, Stick .. I find that particular menatlity, "Christians with Guns" to be more than just a little "whack", in fact, that whole "God Fearing" mind set seems totally warped, like people completely off their melon, with the Bible in one hand and a Colt.45 in the other, its mad .. it dosent make any sense, as if Religion itself wasnt bad enough creating massive devision in the world, add firearms to the mix and boom, crazy, Bible reading people with itchy trigger fingers roaming the planet with their heads stuffed full of illusions. Nutty Christians believe that because the disciples of Jesus had swords, (according to the Bible) they should therefore also carry guns.. wtf? .. religious nuts with weapons, what a dangerous mixture. I am reminded of that crazy American family, Americas main hate group who protest just about everything on the side of the street holding placards and signs, cant remember their name, but that family is seriously off the friggin chart altogether, bat shit crazy, mad as a brush!
I met a hardline Christian on the street in New York once, told me I would go to Hell if I didnt repent all my sins and give my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, (he believed Jesus would eventually appear from the Heavens in a Chariot, and it would emerge from the clouds) I think the problem is conditioning, I feel, with guns, gun ownership and the right to bare arms and all that, its conditioing, mental slavory as Bob Marley sings about, all jammed up in the head. I dont mean any personal disrespect to the people who carry guns or the combination of religion and weapons, but. .. jeez .. I just, I dunno I give up, its "delusional" .. its all absolute madness in my opinion!
...................only unconditional love will solve all the problems humanity experiences in this reality , let it be guns , meat eating and environmental issues are concerned. Only unconditional love will free each person needed to create utopian world we all yearn for...........This artist is my new hero, right on brotha . Keep up the good work.............
........................our kindness to animal world would be a good , neccessary step towards such noble deas. Peace is withn our reach , we only need to be unconditionally loving towards all ............................
Agreed. Love is the answer. Just don't put your brain in the backseat, or you may have an accident.
Right on, Michael, I couldnt aggree more with you, for all the reasons you have spoken about. I still find it amazes me to see some members in here express themselves from the point of view of "conditional love" or rather, where there is a limit to how much love they will express, and a line in the sand is drawn. Then there is uncalled for personal attacks, needless put downs and all that silly back biting that goes on in here, which says more about those who do it, than those on the recieving end of it, especially if its unreasonable or unjustifiable and uncalled for, no unconditional love there. People are more transparent than they realise.."I am not worthy, so I will harrass someone who is, to get my kicks, I will piss all over another to fill that void in me and gain browny points from my peers, because I have no self worth". (either do their "peers") Unconditional Love wipes all of that shit clean off the board, it cleans us all out, as you say, only Unconditional Love will solve all of humanities problems, too right.
In terms of the gun issue, for example, there can be no love when a person is into weapons, making crazy proclamations that owning a gun is somehow justifiable, either for protection purpouses or otherwise, the two just dont go together, its not even a debate in my eyes, its just ignorance verses knowledge. Guns themselves are tools of war, instruments manufactured to cause harm. How many beautiful animals have died in agony, their lives cut down by a bullet or an arrow, killed by heartless, senseless individuals with "no brains?" Hunting season? those people are bastards in my eyes, but do I love them any less? no, I gotta love them more. The mindset behind weapons is ignorant and selffish, bullets, bombs, crossbows, knives, battons, baseball bats, weapons of all kinds, whatever, all of those things are "not" part of the Ascension process, they have nothing to do with Unconditional Love and the argument against that is completely void of any common sense whatsoever.
The term "Ignorance is bliss" must have been written by a moran, ignorance, especially where the gun issue is concerned, is the furthest thing from bliss you could imagine, its a one way ticket to a rude awakening. For millions of people, the denial of knowledge is their blue blanket, staying in ignorance is their comfort zone, unaware that their own train of thought may lead to some horrific consequences, not only for themselves but perhaps for others, unfortunately "caught in the crossfire". Even though we are all "One", I definately see a devide in this website, and to my understanding, it is devided into two camps, one grounded in absolute reality and following their hearts to the best of their ability, the other stuck in illusions while following the crowd, lost in a hypnotic trance and still bamboozled by the shitstem while yet other, peripheral members, those who sit on the old fuckin fence, occasionally swing back and forth from the fringe between both sides, unable to make their mind up between what is reality, and what is fantasy or illusions. Then theres the peanut gallery, ready to throw stones and then run away like the cowards. Unconditional Love is reality, for sure. The sooner its fleshed out in this website, the better off we all are.
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