Simon Norfolk
Victory arch built by the Northern Alliance at the entrance to a local commander's headquarters in Bamiyan. The empty niche housed the smaller of the two Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001
Artist
Simon Norfolk(British, born Nigeria, 1963)British, born Nigeria, 1963
CultureBritish
Titles
- Victory arch built by the Northern Alliance at the entrance to a local commander's headquarters in Bamiyan. The empty niche housed the smaller of the two Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001
- from the series Afghanistan: Chronotopia
Date2001–2002
PlaceBamiyan, Afghanistan
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 19 1/4 × 24 in. (48.9 × 61 cm)
Sheet: 22 1/16 × 24 7/8 in. (56 × 63.2 cm)
Frame (outer): 28 7/8 × 32 7/8 × 1 3/4 in. (73.4 × 83.6 × 4.4 cm)
Sheet: 22 1/16 × 24 7/8 in. (56 × 63.2 cm)
Frame (outer): 28 7/8 × 32 7/8 × 1 3/4 in. (73.4 × 83.6 × 4.4 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Photo Forum 2005
Object number2005.1460
Non exposé
Explore Further
Department
PhotographyObject Type
seductively beautiful photographs of Afghanistan juxtapose the impact of modern warfare with the echoes of the history
it destroys and the human suffering it leaves in its wake. Here, a fluttering
victory arch frames the distant gaping hole where a Bamiyan Buddha once stood,
while the now defunct supports of a bus terminal on the outskirts of Kabul
resemble the barrels of tanks forever pointing heavenward. Norfolk views the
ruins of past wars as a bizarre layering, strata built up over thirty years of
recent conflict and the rumblings of civilization, making Afghanistan, as he
says, “like a mirror, shattered and thrown into the mud of the past; the shards
are glittering fragments, echoing previous civilizations and lost greatness.”
Provenance[Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, California]; purchased by MFAH, 2005.
Exhibition History"Photo Forum 2005," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Lower Brown Corridor; October 3, 2005-January 9, 2006.
"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
"WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 11 November, 2012 - 3 February, 2013.
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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