Piers Secunda   //   In Memory of Sardar Ahmad Khan and Family

In 2009, whilst on an artist’s residency in Shanghai, a friend persuaded two soldiers at an army firing range to shoot a few sheets of paint for me. The intention had been to gather some texture with geopolitical references. The resulting bullet holes were spectacular and unmistakeable flower like shatters, their beautiful forms denying the physical reality of their making. After finishing several works made with these shot pieces of paint, I decided that to continue this strain of work, the idea ought to be pushed as far as possible. With the sentiment in mind, that the most militarily and politically significant people were in Afghanistan, in August 2010 I flew to Kabul, with the intention of casting Taliban bullet holes. Two suicide bomb attack sites had been located for me by Sardar Ahmad Khan, the owner of an Afghan press agency called “Kabul Pressistan.” From my first email to Sardar, he had understood and appreciated the aim of the project and was enthusiastic to help. He and a driver toured Kabul with a map, on which they had marked the locations of Taliban attacks from the last twelve months. They found two sites at which they were able to confirm, with the help of witnesses, which of the bullet holes were Taliban as opposed to security forces or police. The first site was an attack on a private security firm in a residential area of Kabul. At the start of the Taliban’s assault on this building, two drivers for the security firm were shot and killed inside a car in the street. The works in this exhibition are from casts of bullet holes made as the Taliban shot through and around this car, killing the drivers and pock marking the wall behind. It was as a result of Sardar finding these bullet holes, that I bought an airline ticket and made preparations to fly to Kabul. The second attack site was the accommodations of Indian doctors who had been staffing Kabul Hospital. The Taliban had arrived early one morning, set off a car bomb to remove the main gate and gain access to the property, entered the premises, and killed everyone inside. Amongst the dusty rubble at the second site, we found an English language surgical manual which had been machine gunned. The book covered subjects from scrubbing up, to complex operations and delivering babies. The destruction of such a book summed up the horror and severity of the attack, and I’m fortunate to be able to show it in this exhibition. In the Taliban works, the sheets of paint are not shot directly, the bullet holes are a preserved record of the damage made in anger on the street, cast on site with a fast curing silicone putty. The texture differs from the conchoidal fracture of a bullet passing through paint, as the casting material takes the texture of clay bricks. The Taliban works are compelling in part because the paint is so convincing in emulating the texture of a Kabul wall. In March 2014 I learned from the Washington Post that a random killing spree had been carried out by the Taliban at the Serena Hotel in Kabul. Sardar Ahmad Khan was the first person to be shot, from point blank range as he sat eating a meal with his family. He died instantly. The Taliban then shot Sardar’s 5 year old daughter and four year old son in the same way, as their mother pleaded with them “Take my life, please don’t kill my kids” They shot her as well. Only Sardar’s one year old son survived albeit with severe brain damage, two bullets lodged deep inside his head. This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Sardar Ahmad Khan and his family, without whose vision and understanding these works of art could never have been made.