Talibanksy?

While British street artist Banksy is clandestinely promoting his new movie on the West Coast, and here in New York (and Philly) Shepard Fairey plugs his new show on streets around town, a group of anti-war activists in Kabul is using street art for something other than self-promotion. The stencils put up by the anonymous collective Talibanksy are the work of a coalition of international artists and activists that also goes by the moniker Combat Communications, who released a statement explaining that “Social and politically driven graphics, AKA street art, can evoke thought and stimulate discussion." Okay, sure, but is this political art or street art colonialism?

KABUL (AFP) – On walls around Afghanistan's scrappy capital, where million-dollar mansions line rutted roads, anonymous graffiti artists are daubing their disapproving take on the devastating cost of war.

Styled after the anonymous British vandal-artist Banksy, Kabul's streetwise stealth stencillers go by the moniker "Talibanksy", a reference to the Islamist Taliban who have been waging war in Afghanistan for almost nine years.

The street art forms a commentary on the cost in blood and treasure of the war, which has brought 126,000 US and NATO troops to Afghanistan and kills about 2,000 Afghan civilians a year, according to the UN.

Black, spray-painted silhouettes of soldiers and dollar signs, poppies, helicopters and tanks, and children running hand-in-hand began appearing in downtown Kabul a few months ago.

Some show the shadow of a helmeted soldier holding an assault rifle, inside a red circle with a line through it. Others have a silhouetted gun-toting trooper and a dollar sign joined by an equals symbol.

Or simply the words: Cost Of War.

Financially the war is estimated to cost some 100 million dollars a day, according to US media reports.

The human cost to foreign forces so far this year is close to 170, according to the icasualties.org website which keeps tally and says that of the 1,737 who have died since the war began in 2001, 1,051 were Americans.

The people behind the anti-war graffiti call themselves Combat Communications, and claim to be "a small anonymous group of international artists founded last year with the sole aim of advocating/promoting free expression".

According to a statement, they wish to remain anonymous and call their work "social and politically driven graphics".

"This form of self-expression is open to anyone. The youth of Kabul have no real outlet for artistic expression," it says, adding: "Do they want it?"

The Westerners behind Combat Communications declined to speak to AFP, saying they wanted to keep a low profile while they developed their strategy.

Their graffiti appear across the central residential and commercial districts of Kabul, alongside spray-painted advertisements for translation services, real estate agents, plumbers, septic tank cleaners and roofers.

Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has begun moving towards democracy -- with the second parliamentary election set for September -- and freedom of expression is protected by the constitution.

Yet as the insurgency moves deep into its ninth year and the US-led counter-insurgency revs up with foreign troop numbers set to peak by August at 150,000, Kabul remains a city scarred by war and corruption.

Open drains run alongside the main roads, few sidestreets are paved, traffic control is derisory and public transport virtually non-existent.

Two-metre-high concrete blast walls surround most public buildings and embassies, and residential neighbourhoods feature the "narco-tecture" of garishly-tiled, multi-storey mansions most believe are built with the proceeds of the three-billion-dollar-a-year illicit drugs trade.

A cloud of filth from diesel-powered vehicles sits atop a city surrounded on three sides by the peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains, and piles of garbage are picked over by beggars and animals alike.

Consumer price inflation is said to be around 20 percent, helicopter gunships provide an almost constant overhead clatter, and Afghans desperate to leave their country for a new life form long queues at visa offices.

Into this harsh landscape, the sudden appearance of modern street art has added a touch of colour and controversy -- and the blast walls provide the perfect canvas.

Talibanksy's tags are not yet as ubiquitous as Banksy's guerilla art became in London and other British cities over the last decade.

Nor is it as sophisticated, so far presenting little more than simple anti-war messages and slogans, in contrast to the infinitely more clever, caustic and creative Banksy murals.

And whereas Banksy branched out to the US, Australia and the Middle East, becoming an international phenomenon and wealthy in the process, Combat Communications appears to be starting out with more modest ambitions.

The statement contains an anti-capitalist message, hitting out at the massive billboards that dominate city intersections, advertising telecommunications firms or warning against involvement in the drugs trade.

"'Selling the peace' AKA (also known as) winning the war, has also become a big industry. Propaganda is everywhere from counter-narcotic campaigns to counter-terrorism to army recruitment. You can't move without some form of visual purposeful persuasion burning a hole in your soul," it says.

"Social and politically driven graphics, AKA street art, can evoke thought and stimulate discussion.

"Watch your public space," the statement says.

Something new is in the streets of Kabul.

Increased security?  Check

Lakes of mud and seweage?  Check

Graffiti?

Street art, stencil art specifically, has tagged several walls across Kabul.

A tank, a soldier, a dollar sign, poppies, students and schools, helicopters, a Talib, a question mark, and the phrase “Cost of War” are put together into equations across several walls – giving Afghans and Westerners alike a reason to stop and think.  and gossip.

The ‘unknown’ taggers started the stencil art to increase awareness about the Cost of War.

Step one.  Under the cover of night they took to the streets of Kabul, armed with stencils, black spray paint, and cameras.  Taking the first step in bringing street art to the streets of Kabul with a voice that is still dormant in the youth movement in Afghanistan.

Step two?   Stay tuned…..

http://talibanksy.posterous.com/

By Patricia Sauthoff

Thanks to The Afghanistan Analysts Network I found this great video of graffiti artists in Kabul, Afghanistan. Around the same time this was filmed the blog Schnick Schnack posted this same work. Whether you’re a Banksy fan or find his work kinda dull, it’s nice to see that artists are taking to the streets to get their messages out there.

Chand Ast from Talibanksy on Vimeo.

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Kabul’s Shehr-pu district was once a poor area, but since the Taliban fell and the capital’s population of foreigners swelled with security companies, NGOs and media companies, Shehr-pu’s slums have been replaced with awkwardly proportioned and garish mansions, squeezed next to each other and surrounded by some of the worst roads in the city.

But even more striking  than the architecture in Shehr-pu is the sudden appearance of graffiti which looks like it could be the work of the anonymous British artist Banksy

Boys stand in front of a graffiti printed on a wall in Kabul March 24, 2010. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)

Graffiti is printed on a demolished building as a police vehicle drives on the road in Kabul March 24, 2010. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)

Statements such as “cost of war?”, sprayed-on helicopters framed with dollar signs and opium poppies, have been stenciled onto concrete blast barriers and fences, an imitation of Banksy’s style.

Banksy, who has a big following around the world, rose to fame in the mid 2000s with his distinctive street art in London and other big cities in Britain. His murals often carry political messages and subjects have included Guantanamo Bay detainees, London policmen embraced in a kiss and a serene, green landscape painted on a wall built by Israel to fence-off the West Bank from Jerusalem.

There are many westerners living in Kabul at the moment, the elections in August brought a wave of fresh faces onto a community of expatriates from Europe, the United States and other developed economies where Banksy’s name and work are familiar. But the graffiti looks like it’s more likely be the work of a copy-cat artist who thinks Banksy ought to apply his satire to Kabul. While there are similarities in the style and the objective of the murals appears to be the same as the reclusive Bristolian, they lack the finesse and scale of Banksy’s work. And whether the graffiti is Banksy’s or not, the cultural reference might be lost on many Afghans who may not have heard of him.

TOP: A Banksy mural in Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010. (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith); ABOVE: A member of the Palestinian security forces stands guard in front of a mural by graffiti artist Banksy during a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to the West Bank town of Bethlehem in January 2008. (REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun)

Kabul December 2009, first sighting of "Talibanksy"? ¦ یدلایمخیرات 2009 دسامبر کابل ، دید اول