Bamiyan Buddhas
1500y ago, the Ghandara monks carved two giant Buddhas in a remote valley along the Silk Road, where Greek art would blend into Oriental cultures.
The 53m and 38m Buddhas (dated between 544 AD for the smallest and 644 AD for the tallest figure) were oil painted and covered with gold. This is also the first reported use of oil painting in history.
The Kushan kingdom disappeared at the beginning of the 13th century, finished off by Genghis Kahn.
The statues remained almost untouched... until March 2001, when Talibans blasted them.
We are missing a lot of data and my reconstruction is speculative. I applied some traits of the Gandhara style showing the same unconventional proportions, but if you look at them from below, all of a sudden, they’re just perfect!
This is an unstable depiction: the painting and reconstructed parts vanish with distance, and the buddhas totally collapse if you get too close...
This is a personal recontruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, in a short interactive experience: first person exploration, through a night and day cycle.
When the sequence starts, sun rises and reveals the giant sculptures hidden in their alcove.
From a distant point of view, the sculptures shows a reconstruction of the ancient figures, that were once painted and covered with gold.
Getting closer, the painting and unknown parts disappear, revealilng the Buddhas as we used to know them. Getting closer... they will collapse in a tragical sound clash.
I modelled the landscape after satellite datas (Google Earth, Open Street Map), various photographs and even videos, mixing macro and close-up textures in custom shaders controlled by scripts.