Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Graffiti of War on Boing Boing


I am very happy to announce my first feature for Boing Boing is online: "The Graffiti of War."
The project is collecting images of what we're calling unconventional military art or the graffiti of war. Unconventional being that it's not on a traditional canvas that you would think of as art. It's not a drawing that someone made in their sketchbook. It's not a painting on canvas. It's spray paint and Sharpie markers on blast walls, inside of the Porta Potties, on the backs of vehicles, graffiti that are tagged everywhere, on enemy vehicles, memorials that people have put together to remember the guys that didn't come back. It's all that, kind of created in the heat of the moment - of pride, or anger, or sadness. All the emotions that you experienced while you're there. Some are elaborate, and some are pretty simple. But it was created by someone who had some strong emotion at that time. It's a way of, when they were there, saying, "Here I am. We were here. After we're gone, this will still be here." It's a side of combat that a lot of people back home never see, never hear about, so they don't understand it. That is part of the experience, too.
[Read it]