Landscape and Memory :: Faculty of Fine Art Kabul

Concert Uni Kabul

2009-01-10T13:06:00.001-08:00

The Faculty of Fine Art Kabul held an all-night music 'raga' concert for Profs. Philip Pocock (Canada) and Michael Saup (Germany) in the faculty lounge.

cLass photo workshop Kabul 2004

2006-05-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

cLass photo workshop Kabul 2004, originally uploaded by con10t.

Philip Pocock, visiting professor under the Cultural Personalities

Exchange Program, at the University of Kabul Fine Arts Faculty with

Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan Christopher Alexander, students and

faculty members.

Photo by: Peter Marshall (June 2004)

http://www.canada-afghanistan.gc.ca/cultural_exchange-en.asp

LoyaDirgaPlasticLeaf by Shekibaa

2005-05-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

LoyaDirgaPlasticLeaf by Shekibaa, originally uploaded by con10t.

Mina's colleague woman art student Shekibaa painted a silver 'place' to represent the seat of government and more importantly peace and harmony on a leaf found outside the Loya Dirga provisional tribal government tent. It was a plastic leaf.

LandscapeAndMemory by Kabir

2005-04-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

LandscapeAndMemory by Kabir, originally uploaded by con10t.

Kabir is not only adept with a brush, his English skills helped me a lot with the class in its early days. He is currently on scholarship in India.

T-Shirt by Mahdi

2004-11-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

T-Shirt_by_Mahdi, originally uploaded by con10t.

The hanger is bizarrely beautiful, if less obvious in this reproduction. The T-shirt is sewn crudely from a tea case liner.

HistoryofaPot01 by Nawroz

2005-05-19T17:16:00.001-07:00

HistoryofaPot1 by Nawroz, originally uploaded by con10t.

translation soon.

Kabul by Mina

2005-05-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Kabul by Mina, originally uploaded by con10t.

Kabul is situated in a basin with a spectacular ring of mountains on its outskirts. In tape on a cardboard square found in the street, mina, made this 'postcard' view.

HeadbandPoet

2005-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

HeadbandPoet, originally uploaded by con10t.

HistoryofaPot02 by Nawroz

2005-05-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

nawrozpot02, originally uploaded by con10t.

Memory Bracelet by Mina

2005-05-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Memory Bracelet by Mina, originally uploaded by con10t.

Not Made in Afghanistan by Maisam

2005-05-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Not Made in Afghanistan by Maisam, originally uploaded by con10t.

WoundedBullet by Maisam

2005-05-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

WoundedBullet by Maisam, originally uploaded by con10t.

ExitOpen by Maisam and Mahdi

2005-05-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

ExitOpen by Maisam and Mahdi, originally uploaded by con10t.

NoMoreMines by Shekibaa

2005-05-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

NoMoreMines by Shekibaa, originally uploaded by con10t.

Mahmoud got a broken doll for a song from a rag trader outside the Sahki Mosque. Back at the Faculty of Fine Art Kabul, The female student Shekibaa, specialist with the silver pen (see her blogged Loya Dirga Plastic Leaf) inscribed a message that reads something like:

NO MORE MINES PLEASE.
WE LOVE OUR LEGS.

ShellBottle by Mahdi

2005-05-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

mahdi_ShellBottle, originally uploaded by con10t.

Uncanny, Mahdi's drink water bottle pierced by a 40mm shell resemble the high-speed image of a bullet piercing an apple by Harald Egerton. Shells are easy to come by in Kabul, the ones to worry about are those with the extra piercing power due to uranium coating or some other devilish technology, which any conscious perrson would imagine pose a risk to children in the streets after whatever fact is being pounded.
This shell casing turns the bottle into thin air, water evaporated, gone like the waters of the Kabul River, not even a trickle but still mosquitoey and soggy under foot to make life for the hoards of returning refugees camping in provisional plastic tarp tents on the ex-waterway a test for patience, simply a misery. The vertical invisible, the water bottle empty and pointing up nonetheless poses a cross form and questions with the stiff horizontal line of the shell magically arrested or perhaps unaware that the bottle is even there.

CNNSoldier by Maisam

2005-05-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

CNN_Soldier by Maisam, originally uploaded by con10t.

Afghanistan was the last country of earth to get network television, around 1978. The reception is just like anywhere, maybe a bit sharper with nails as an antenna.

BamyanBuddha_MiniMemorial by Wahaab

2005-05-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

BamyanBuddha_MiniMemorial by Wahaab, originally uploaded by con10t.

The theme posed the class was Landscape and Memory. Landscape meant using only materials found in Kabul nothing foreign. Wahaab found a smooth chalky rock outside, almost shaped like some strange tool, perhaps from a blast, and he saw his Memory in it - the indelibly cruel erasure of the Bamiyan Buddha. Here a work by a young Kabuli studying art, Faculty of Fine Art Kabul, 12 June 2004.
(Perhaps this work belongs to one of, or the first series of contemporary art to have been made by young local cultural producers in Kabul since Year Zero - 2001)

LoyaDirgaShoe by Mina

2005-05-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

LoyaDirgaShoe, originally uploaded by con10t.

Mina, one of 4 young women participating in Landscape & Memory, found this leather slipper or shoe baking in the sun outside the Afghan parliament, a German tent of the kind used for temporary trade fairs, with air cooling. The parliament is called I believe the Loya Dirga, a meeting place and event for policy and legistlature representing the various localities and positions within the country.
Mina used some half-dried nail polish we found in the local market and she glued some old thread found as well. The slipper bobs and perhaps will be launched by the rusty bed spring pedestal it's perched on. Photos by Mahdi, also a workshop student.

StudentReading

2004-06-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Kabul 7 June 2004

We arrived in Kabul, Svenja Ritter, Noori and I, from Frankfurt via the Afghan Ariana Airlines. We were detoured and landed in Uzbekistan for some unannounced reason. Nonetheless the old plane, a gift of India, maintenance donated by the Germans, made it safely.My traveling companion threw up right in Kabul airport. I instantly got plumbing problems, perhaps from only breathing, as 12% of the air contains decomposing and fecal matter I was told. All one can do is carry on. It could be a lot worse.

With electrolytic powder and lots of water in my bag, and a G4 laptop running Mediawiki in Farci for the students, I headed as soon as possible to the Faculty of Fine Arts, Some cavernous holes from mortars were still to be seen, although a lot of fine work had been done by German crews. They repaired the toilets and washrooms right after I got there, and the Auditorium, one could see would be
beautiful, wonderful light, as it approached basic completion. The site around the Faculty of Fine Arts Building just behind the Islamic Law Faculty Building had lots of tree cover, a water pump, and small shaded out-buildings had provided shelter, and as one could expect from the horror of war, had been a fierce battle zone.

However, in June 2004, things begin to fall into place... Student Reading behind Faculty Fine Arts building Kabul 7 June 2004

studentkabul070604, originally uploaded by con10t.