Saturday, May 18, 2013
Conflict and consequence
In Part II of The Architecture of Desire, Lida Abdul digs into Afghani rubble
by Amanda Lundgren
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In September, Part I of The Architecture of Desire showcased installations by Cristina Iglesias and a video by Runa Islam that examined the relationship between buildings and human behavior.
Using the Cornerstone Arts Center's I.D.E.A. Space as inspiration, Colorado College curator Jessica Hunter Larsen sought out art that reflected culture and represented architecture as a social endeavor.
The Architecture of Desire now culminates with Part II, featuring three videos by Lida Abdul, set in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Abdul challenges the notion of "home" as a safe haven, using ruined homes and other shelters to show how war has impacted daily life and Afghani culture.
"Afghanistan is the most land-mined country in the world right now," says Hunter Larsen. "So much of their cultural heritage and daily life has been destroyed by these buildings being destroyed."
Abdul's imagery forces us to consider who we would be and how we would move though life if more than half our environment was reduced to ruin.
"A lot of her work deals with how you think about who you are in the present, how you think about your future, and where you put that culturally, intellectually, socially," Hunter Larsen says.
Born in Kabul, Abdul was forced to leave left Afghanistan as a child during the Soviet invasion in 1979. Her videos address the consequences of conflict and oppression and seek to redefine conventional ideas about community and shelter.
"The lovely thing about her work is that it's very beautiful and poetic," says Hunter Larsen. "So you're looking at this [destruction], but there is a sense of hope in it. A sense of, 'We're going to create a space through art that helps deal with this.' There's a lot of power in that."
