Simon Norfolk's 'Stratographs' at Benrubi Gallery Explores Time in Afghanistan and Kenya

Simon Norfolk's exhibition 'Stratographs' at Benrubi Gallery's new Chelsea space from February 5 to March 21, 2015 presents two photographic series documenting temporal passage. In Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, Norfolk photographed locations repeatedly between 2013 and 2014, capturing landscapes marked by human activity and historical destruction. The Taliban's 2001 destruction of Buddha statues appears in images showing cliff faces with remaining architectural traces. At Kenya's Lewis Glacier, Norfolk walked historical glacier boundaries with a burning torch, creating long-exposure photographs where his movement appears as a fiery line against the glacial monolith. The installation groups Afghanistan photographs by location rather than chronology, creating non-linear narratives that reveal complex relationships between images. Norfolk's wall text describes his fascination with 'timey thickness' and landscape 'slippages' that expose layered temporal slices. He references Robert Smithson's concept of dialectical landscapes, where nature and human intervention interact dynamically. The photographs show human presence through agricultural patterns, war debris, and climate change evidence rather than portraiture. Two films accompany the photographs, documenting Norfolk's processes in both countries. The exhibition marks Benrubi Gallery's inaugural presentation in its Chelsea location at 521 West 26th Street in New York.