steel, metal wire, lead, tracing paper, twine, electric motor - 55 x 35 x 40 cm
Untitled (Afghanistan) powerfully portrays the turbulent socio-political history of Afghanistan and the artist’s relation to it through a kinetic sculpture. This sculpture features three rotating flags, each representing a significant moment in Afghanistan’s history and way of life, irregularly colliding with each other. Each flag in the sculpture corresponds to a distinct historical period: the black, red, and green flag was first hoisted in 1929; the green, white, and black flag was waved by the Islamist factions of the 1990s; and the white flag rose again with the return of the Taliban regime. Through a perpetual and intertwined motion, the movement of the flags underscores the cyclic nature of history and the entangled politics of change that have gripped Afghanistan since the turn of the 20th century. This work is a meditation on the fragility of times, histories and bodies grappled with by the citizens of the country.