Murmuret: drawing a valley on the Afghan-Pakistan frontier

Abstract

This essay is about a drawing I produced over eight years between 2011 and 2019. The drawing is big (1.6 by 0.9 metres) and very detailed (Image 1). The subject is Mumuret1, a high-altitude valley skirting Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. I have represented the valley divided by the river which runs down its middle. Trees creep up the sides while, lower down on the valley fl oor are clustered settlements, single buildings, and people. The perspective shifts throughout the drawing, moving between a ground-level view and a bird’s-eye view. At one end, the valley folds in on itself, and we see it from high above, winding its way through the serried peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains.