A Call to Artists

An Exhibit of War and Resilience in Afghanistan

Artists have always provided the most powerful images of war. From around the world they inspire resistance to war and occupation from Japan to South Africa to Iraq. Whether it’s Pablo Picasso’s antiwar painting Guernica or the Pat Barker Regeneration Trilogy about WWI, painters and writers have conveyed the horrors of violence in ways that are timeless. Films like Kabul Transit and its depiction of city life highlighted by the lyrics of the iconic singer Ahmad Zahir help us learn more about life in Afghanistan.

AFSC is initiating an art project to memorialize the untold number of Afghan casualties. Help us circulate the call below or volunteer if you are a painter/muralist.

A Call to Artists:
An Exhibit of War and Resilience in Afghanistan

The American Friends Service Committee is creating a traveling exhibit that will call attention to the inconceivable loss of life in Afghanistan due to war. We need volunteer painters/muralists/grafitti artists who would be interested in creating unique panels for a traveling memorial to Afghan casualties of the war. The exhibit will contain 30-40 panels created by artists responding to the human cost of the war to Afghans.

Artists will be provided with a 6’x4’ lightweight nonwoven fabric panel to use for their design. Artists will also be provided with a bank of images to use for inspiration.

(Note: The fabric is similar to garment interfacing and is known as “Parachute Cloth” or PolyTab. Acrylic primer, paint and sealers must be used.) Specific instructions will be included with the fabric that is provided.

By participating in this project artists will allow AFSC to use the work in the original traveling exhibit, in digital replicas of the work and in informational brochures and on the web.

AFSC did a project with similar intentions to memorialize Iraqi casualties
Dreams and Nightmares: A Memorial to Life and Death in Iraq

While AFSC cannot pay artists for the work, we intend to have a brochure that identifies each panel by artist, title of panel, short description and your website if you so choose.

Deadline for participation: April 15
Deadline for completion of work: May 15th
Contact : Mary Zerkel mzerkel@afsc.org