little buddah

Artist Hiro Yamagata sits Aug. 1 inside a holographic cube built for an upcoming exhibition at his studio in Torrance, Calif. Yamagata plans to commemorate two destroyed fifth-century Buddha statues by projecting multicolored laser images onto the clay cliffsides where they once stood.



Bringing back Afghan Buddhas, with light
L.A. artist to ‘re-create’ laser versions of structures destroyed by Taliban

.........LOS ANGELES - When the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan destroyed two 1,600-year-old Buddha statues lining Bamiyan Valley’s soaring cliffs, the world shook with shock at the demise of such huge archaeological treasures.
Now, artist Hiro Yamagata plans to commemorate the towering Buddhas by projecting multicolored laser images onto the clay cliffsides where the figures once stood, about 80 miles west of Kabul...............
...........In March 2001, Taliban militants disregarded worldwide protests and used dynamite and artillery to blow up the original fifth-century statues, famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. The fundamentalist group considered the Buddhas idolatrous and anti-Muslim..........