chalk on blackboard depictions of afghanistan mountains by tacita dean

‘fatigues’ by tacita dean, 2012 chalk on blackboard, 6 panels 230 x 1110 cm; 230 x 557cm; 230 x 744cm; 230 x 1110cm; 230x 557cm; 230 x 615cm spohrstr.7 (ex-finance building) fridericianum kabul – bamiyan image by nils klinger and courtesy the artist; frith street gallery, london; marian goodman gallery, new york, paris

tacita dean: fatigues dOCUMENTA (13), kassel, germany on now until august 16th, 2012

UK artist tacita dean has created ‘fatigues’, a six panel blackboard pieces recreating the mountainous landscape of afghanistan for dOCUMENTA (13) in kassel, germany. following dean’s visit to kabul to film the rugged countryside belonging to this middle eastern nation, she found her footage to be flawed and instead offers this ex-business center enormous blackboard mural sketches picturing afghanistan’s terrain.  while some of the landscapes are covered in a bright white chalk, standing in stark contrast to the darkness of dean’s blackboard canvas, others are decorated with only a hint of line to portray the movement of rivers, snow and the interaction of these elements with sunlight.  the massive artwork spans the walls of an open air two-story space belonging to a former banking hall and was commissioned and co-produced by the festival for which the piece is displayed.

alternate view of the installation image by nils klinger

one of the upstairs rectangular panels portrays a more jagged landscape image via contemporary art daily

a visualizations of the largest components of ‘fatigue’– both up and downstairs image via contemporary art daily

image by nils klinger

one of six blackboard panels image by nils klinger

blotted lines and stark white chalk form the mountainscape image via contemporary art daily

a detailed perspective of ‘fatigue’ image by nils klinger