Graffiti art brightens war-torn Afghan capital
A group of women in burqas rises from the sea to symbolize
cleanliness, while further down a factory wall a bus with no wheels and
crammed with passengers is a stark comment on war-torn Kabul’s appalling
public transport.
A new Afghan art collective called Roshd, or ‘growth’, has brought
street art and graffiti to the conservative Muslim nation’s capital,
starting with a mural on a three metre high wall in an in dustrial park.
An Afghan artist paints graffiti on the wall of an industrial
park in Kabul, December 19. Picture by Reuters |
Soon they hope to take their creativity and commentary to the dusty
city centre, where blast walls, scrawled advertisements, political
propaganda and armed guards are more usual sights.
Using spray paint for the first time, Ommolbanin Shamsia Hassani, 22,
who is due to start teaching at Kabul University’s fine art faculty,
painted the burqa-clad group.
“Water is very clean and I want to show the women are clean too,”
said Hassani. “It was the first time I was painting a big wall, I have
always painted on small canvas…I have become very tired because it’s so
big.”
Hassani and the other artists were working with a British graffiti
artist who goes by the name Chu, who has been painting on walls for 30
years and has done projects including painting an entire train.
He travelled from London for a one-week workshop.
“In this very short space of time they have absorbed all the skills
necessary to paint something huge,” Chu said.
“It’s just magical what’s been happening before my eyes…The end
result is that they just want to paint more.”
Some signed up for the workshop knowing almost nothing about the
essence of the art form.
“There is one reaction I will never forget and it was a concern that
a big painting would be disturbing,” said Chu. “I said, ‘that’s the
point’.”
Farid Khurrami, 29, a sculpture artist, painted the bus with no
wheels moving past a man firing a gun in a bid to spotlight how bad
public transport is in Kabul.
“People are suffering very much in Kabul,” he said.
“People will be very surprised by this new form of art, it is a
better way to communicate with a broader audience.”
“My message will be more about the peace and the money which the
Government is spending more on the military, I want it to be used more
on the arts,” he said of his future graffiti plans.
Dawn |