Afghanistan Soldiers
Art right now is different than it has ever been, and in particular war art is of a wholly different genre than in any generations previous. Historical pictures of soldiers tend to portray the soldiers in strong, bold positions, while the rise of photography brought a more humane, but distinctly hard appearance to the idea of war. The new war art portrayals, in contrast, suggest a more human innocence to these Afghanistan soldiers. The following different types of war art are exemplars of the new types of war art coming out of this generation, in particular with regards to Afghanistan soldiers.
1. Murals
One particular war art mural is currently being done by Canadian artist Dave Sopha. He is currently in the process of painting a long mural that includes the faces of all 113 Canadian Afghanistan soldiers who have died thus far into Canada’s military action. His mural is not like war art of past times, however; rather than the bold, full body, intense looking portraits that characterized war art in history, he paints just slightly smiling faces, all looking out of the canvas, innocent and brave.
2. Poetry/Art Slams
The blog “Talking About Peace” every Saturday holds a poetry/art slam for Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers and veterans. They keep a log of past slams, which have published art, photography, and poetry by Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers, representing their experiences in some way. Another group, the Warrior Writers Project, encourages Afghanistan soldiers to express themselves through writing, and in particular poetry. It holds writing workshops with veterans and has published several books of their work, bringing a true soldier’s perspective to this war art, and truly exploring the feelings of being among Afghanistan soldiers.
3. Textiles
The aforementioned Warrior Writer’s Project has started a project called the Combat Paper Project which holds workshops showing soldiers how to make paper out of the fibers of their old uniforms. In this way, they have paper made from their blood and sweat, that has later been used to make books, journals, and broadsides. This war art provides catharsis for the Afghanistan soldiers by allowing them to release pent up feelings and emotions, but also helps spread the knowledge of a war society through these Afghanistan soldiers’ representations.
4. Coasters
One website, Warlords of Afghanistan, is now selling coasters that depict, on the front, an Afghanistan warlord while, on the back, a number of facts about the warlord are summarized. Though this is not exactly war art, it contributes to the kinds of war art we nowadays find acceptable. The portrayals of the warlords are caricatures which, though not a recent phenomenon, have rarely been treated so lightly in history (as a coaster). This, it can be supposed, serves to lampoon these warlords, thus conducting a sort of media war in the public against them.