Kabul to Bamiyan

William Cobbing on the creation of his Bamiyan Mirror Series

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Travelling to Bamiyan from Kabul by jeep took about ten hours, despite our driver, Reza, racing over the bone shaking dirt track. We drove through the gorges of the Northern Shibar Pass rather than the more direct Hajigak Pass which pass through Taliban territory. There were occasional stop off points for fatty sikh kababs washed down with green tea, and to explore the shells of rusty and graffitied Russian tanks.  We stayed in a yurt on a plateau overlooking the spectacular valley and the mountains which housed the Buddha niches.

I regarded the time I had in Bamiyan as an opportunity to explore the area, with artworks potentially emerging through the act of looking and experiencing the town. The perceptual contradiction of the Buddhas becoming more resonant as a vestige after their destruction led me to think about using a mirror reflection of the niches as a way of engaging with their mirage-like quality. I had bought a mirror in a bathroom shop in Kabul, and took this with me on my walks around Bamiyan, stopping occasionally to photograph the reflection of the Buddha niches in it. I propped the mirror up against poplar trees, rocks, signposts, or embedded it into loose soil in arable fields, and in piles of gravel by the sides of roads. Only fragments of the niches were reflected when the mirror was placed nearby, revealing details of the scaffolding supporting the crumbling sandstone niches. In other close-ups a policeman stands by his battered shipping container office at the base of the niches, and grottoes are revealed where Buddhist monks once lived.

Further away in the impoverished town of Bamiyan the mirror images gave a context to the Buddha niches, of the people and their daily routines. The mirror reflected the mosque with its turquoise minaret, a field being ploughed by yoked oxen, the polluted river at the centre of town with advertising hoardings and market stalls. This contrasted sharply with the mirrored image of the fortified Silk Road hotel where UN staff and diplomats arrive at in armour-plated jeeps.

From the vantage point of the fields by the edge of town the mirror reflected the full epic scale of the Buddha niches in the sandstone cliffs and the backdrop of the snow capped mountains of the Hindu Kush. The most breathtaking view over the valley was from the citadel of Shahr-e Gholghola. Navigating the winding rocky path up to the summit was unnerving because of the painted pebbles marking the landmined areas, the red side of the stone indicating the land has yet to be cleared, and the white side indicating the safe de-mined areas.

Continue reading about the Bamiyan Mirror series:
>> The Buddhas and Land Art

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>> Bamiyan Mirror Series

Further material:
>> Will Cobbing interviewed about the Bamiyan Mirror series