High Line Plinth Commission Turns to Bamiyan’s Lost Buddhas
A 27-foot sandstone monument now rises above Hudson Yards, bringing one of the world’s most charged acts of cultural memory into the center of Manhattan. Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976) has unveiled The Light That Shines Through the Universe, the fifth commission for the High Line Plinth, where it will remain on view until autumn 2027.
The work takes its title from “Salsal,” the nickname local people in the Bamiyan valley gave to the larger of the two sixth-century Buddhas of Bamiyan, which the Taliban destroyed in 2001. Nguyen’s sculpture is not a literal reconstruction. Instead, it uses carved sandstone and two monumental steel hands that hover slightly away from the stone limbs, held in place by tall rods. The hands, cast from melted-down artillery shells sourced from Afghanistan, form gestures associated with fearlessness and compassion.
Nguyen has long worked with materials tied to conflict and repair, often transforming remnants of war into vessels for memory. Here, that approach links Afghanistan and Vietnam through both substance and symbolism. The artist said he hoped the work would become “a site of inquiry and memory,” adding that although it was not conceived as a response to current events, it now resonates with today’s wars.
Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art, said the sculpture’s sandstone surface carries a rare force in contemporary art. “It’s not something we’re used to seeing in contemporary art — it belongs to art history,” she said, noting the contrast between the monument’s earthy material and the steel, concrete, and glass of Hudson Yards.
Alemani and Nguyen both said the project was first proposed in 2023, when the Taliban’s return to power and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine were already shaping the conversation around it. Since then, the work has taken on additional urgency amid the US and Israeli war on Iran.
The Plinth has become one of New York’s most visible stages for public art, with previous commissions by Iván Argote, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sam Durant, and Simone Leigh. Nguyen’s installation will also be accompanied by monthly lectures and guided meditation sessions, beginning May 16 during Frieze New York at the Shed. In a city built on speed and spectacle, the sculpture asks for a slower encounter — one shaped by loss, endurance, and the possibility of repair.
