This monument to the notion of victory in the war in Afghanistan is a reference to Emperor Trajan’s column in the forum in Rome (a copy of which is in the Cast Courts of the V&A Museum, London). It is a monument to his campaigns in Dacia, modern-day Romania, recording significant events through relief sculpture scenes spiralling up the column. The form of the spiralled column has been re-used and reinterpreted through history as an icon of victory; perhaps most notably for the victory column of Napoleon’s Grande Armée in Place Vendome, Paris, made from captured Russian and Austrian cannons.
Razor wire and aggregate are materials commonly used for the perimeter security and surface imprint of enclaves of occupation in the War on Terror.
