Mapping the Unseen

Mapping the Unseen traces Afghanistan’s past and imagines 2061. The participatory exhibit examines the histories leading up to the chaotic U.S./NATO withdrawal and the Taliban's return to power. In August 2021, as the Afghan government collapsed and the U.S./NATO withdrawal unfolded, Afghan American artist Gazelle Samizay was helping with evacuation efforts—almost exactly 40 years after her own family had left Afghanistan. Watching events change hour by hour left her with a question: How did they get here? That question became Mapping the Unseen, a participatory installation, with an opening reception Friday, December 11, from 6–9 p.m.

Told through illustrated rugs, anecdotal stories, interactive projection, and soundscapes, Mapping the Unseen works backward and forward from August 2021, examining foreign intervention and geopolitical power alongside Afghan resistance and everyday life. A question at the center of Samizay’s inquiry was: how could an Afghan government built and sustained over two decades with extensive American and international support and billions of dollars in aid collapse so rapidly?

Moving across six illustrated rugs, visitors travel through different periods of Afghan history, encountering political and social movements, artistic and cultural production, migration and displacement, and women’s changing roles in Afghan society. Lesser-known episodes sit alongside major turning points—from Helmand’s U.S.-backed “Little America,” to American-funded schoolbooks that taught arithmetic with rifles and grenades, to CIA efforts to buy back U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles, including from the Taliban. By placing these histories alongside one another, Mapping the Unseen asks how the events chosen for the foreground—and those left out—shape the understanding of Afghanistan.