Japan's Hologram Artist

World famous artist Hiro Yamagata, known for his large-scale holographic works, plans to recreate two towering 1,600-year-old statues in Afghanistan.

The statues, Bamiyan Buddhas, were destroyed in 2001 by the former Taliban regime. This caused great local and international outcry, drawing the attention of Yamagata.

He plans to recreate the Buddhas by projecting 140 neon pink, green, orange, white and blue laser "statue" images onto the cliffsides where the figures once stood. Each image will be up to 175 feet tall, just like the original statues, and the display width will be four miles.

In the image above, Yamagata shows off a shimmering structure of greens and reds sitting on Yokohama, Japan's waterfront in May 2003.

The new "statues" will be on display for four hours every Sunday for an indefinite period. The project, which will cost between $7 million and $9 million, is being financed by Mercedes-Benz and others and is scheduled for completion in June 2007.

--Bjorn Carey

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Credit: AP Photo / Koji Sasahara