{"id":211072,"date":"2026-04-27T11:43:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T11:43:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:43:39","slug":"towering-homage-to-bamiyan-buddhas-rises-over-manhattans-high-line-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211072\/","title":{"rendered":"Towering homage to Bamiyan Buddhas rises over Manhattan\u2019s High Line – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the next year and a half, visitors to the ultra-modern Hudson Yards development on Manhattan\u2019s far west side will be met by an icon of the ancient world. The fifth commission for the plinth on the High Line elevated park is an homage to the Buddhas of Bamiyan<\/a>, the pair of 6th-century colossi in central Afghanistan that the Taliban blew up in 2001<\/a>. The new sculpture is by the Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen and is titled after the nickname locals in the Bamiyan valley gave to the larger of the two Buddhas, \u201cSalsal\u201d, which translates to \u201cthe light shines through the universe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope this work becomes a site of inquiry and memory,\u201d Nguyen says of his 27ft-tall sandstone monument. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t intended to speak about this moment, but unfortunately it does resonate with what is happening in today\u2019s wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Light That Shines Through the Universe, 2026. A High Line Plinth commission. On view until autumn 2027 Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line<\/p>\n

His sculpture is not an exact replica of either of the Bamiyan Buddhas, but is largely made of the same material: carved sandstone. The Buddhas\u2019 hands were destroyed centuries ago in an earlier act of iconoclasm; Nguyen has created two monumental steel hands that float slightly away from the sandstone limbs, supported by tall rods. They make gestures symbolising fearlessness and compassion, and are cast from melted-down artillery shells sourced from Afghanistan\u2014a process connected to Nguyen\u2019s practice of turning unexploded ordinances from the Vietnam war into vessels of memory and healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many parallels between the US wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam,\u201d Nguyen says. \u201cMaterials are so important to my projects. We looked into sourcing sandstone from Pakistan, but it was too complicated. This was cast and carved in Vietnam then shipped here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Light That Shines Through the Universe, 2026. A High Line Plinth commission. On view until autumn 2027 Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line<\/p>\n

The material contrast between the earthy, organic sandstone of The Light That Shines Through the Universe and the industrial steel, concrete and glass of its setting evokes a slightly surreal sense of time travel. \u201cThere\u2019s something so striking and evocative about seeing a sculpture made of sandstone,\u201d says Cecilia Alemani, the director and chief curator of High Line Art. \u201cIt\u2019s not something we\u2019re used to seeing in contemporary art\u2014it belongs to art history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Nguyen and Alemani say that when the sculpture was first proposed in 2023, the Taliban\u2019s return to power<\/a> two years earlier and Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in 2022 were top of mind. Now, the project has taken on added poignancy amid the US and Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n

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Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Light That Shines Through the Universe, 2026. A High Line Plinth commission. On view until autumn 2027 Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s intrinsic to powerful public artworks that they become relevant or newly relevant depending on circumstances,\u201d Alemani says. \u201cFor the plinth commissions, we always look for works that are not only iconic but that have this power to be relevant in a variety of contexts and temporalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen\u2019s poignant, solemn and ultimately hopeful project for the High Line Plinth\u2014a prominent venue for public art that straddles the intersection of 30th Street and Tenth Avenue\u2014 follows projects at the site by Iv\u00e1n Argote<\/a>, Pamela Rosenkranz<\/a>, Sam Durant<\/a> and Simone Leigh. It will be activated by a series of monthly lectures and guided meditation sessions, the first of which is scheduled for 16 May during Frieze New York<\/a> nearby at the Shed.<\/p>\n

Tuan Andrew Nguyen The Light That Shines Through the Universe<\/a>, until autumn 2027, High Line Plinth, New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the next year and a half, visitors to the ultra-modern Hudson Yards development on Manhattan\u2019s far west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[83443,83442,83441,75,84,83,9,24,63,13074],"class_list":["post-211072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-buddhas-of-bamiyan","tag-frieze-new-york-2026","tag-high-line-art","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-public-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}