Lida Abdul, Dome

Afghan artist Lida Abdul describes the chance encounter that became the basis for her elegiac film Dome. Abdul calls her pieces ‘anti-monuments’, and in Dome we see a small boy dancing alone in the centre of a bombed-out building in Kabul. The boy’s circling movements trace the shape of the roofless dome as he looks up at the sky, then comes the sinister throbbing of whirling rotor blades as a helicopter passes overhead.

Title Dome
Artist(s) Lida Abdul
Dates 2005
Places Asia / South Asia / Afghanistan
Period, Culture, Style Contemporary
Artwork Type Film and video art
Material
Technique

Cite this page as: Tate, "Lida Abdul, Dome," in Smarthistory, September 10, 2021, accessed April 25, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/lida-abdul-a-beautiful-encounter-with-chance/.