Gate of Forgotten Footsteps by Naemat Wardak
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 40 x 30 cm
Year: 2025
Price: $4930.00 USD
Status: available
“The Gate of Forgotten Footsteps” is an oil painting inspired by Kabul’s Zanburak Shah Wall and the layers of history I grew up surrounded by. I use fractured geometry, architectural forms, and unnatural light to turn the wall into something between a real place and a remembered one. The worn structure represents a Kabul shaped by centuries of change, loss, and endurance. Rather than documenting the wall literally, I wanted to capture the feeling of standing before something that has witnessed generations disappear. The work is part of my ongoing exploration of Afghanistan through memory, place, and identity, making it both a personal remembrance and a contemporary interpretation of Kabul’s historical landscape.
Why collect this work?
Gate of Forgotten Footsteps sets a small, shaded building against oversized geometric fields, making historical place appear less like stable scenery than a construction continually revised by memory.
- Wardak’s statement describes painting as a way to assemble memories of Afghanistan that resist words. Here, shifts between recognizable structures and abstraction give that aim a clear visual form.
- The photograph shows stairs leading toward a black opening, but the surrounding walls overlap without consistent depth. The route is legible locally while the larger setting remains impossible to map.
- The documented oil on canvas allows crisp edges to coexist with softly modelled passages. This contrast makes the rock, orb, and building read as remnants held within a schematic framework.
- The artist identifies Kabul’s Zanburak Shah Wall as the work’s source. Its transformation supports focused consideration of how a specific urban landmark can be preserved through alteration rather than topographical accuracy.
About the Artist
Naemat Wardak
Naemat Wardak is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Kabul, AF.
Nationality: Afghan
I paint because there are things I remember that I cannot fully put into words.
