For more than a decade, Kandahar, Afghanistan has been locked in a war of attrition after it was occupied by the U.S-lead coalition forces—what most people may not know is that it is also home to a collection of striking graffiti art that has been made by the occupying soldiers.
In the dark of the night, armed with art materials made with salvaged paint from the tank maintenance crews and cardboard stencils, these enlisted street artists tagged the protective concrete walls put up around the city with emotionally charged images.
From reproduction of WWII pin-ups to subversive messages derived from anti-establishment cult film Fight Club, these graffiti artworks are expressions of the frustration and stress felt by the soldiers.
To preserve these works of art, some of these tags have been carefully chipped off their walls and shipped off to museums around the world. Army veteran James Toler is also producing a picture book and postcards of these graffiti art so as to ensure that these artistic expressions of the soldiers who fought the war would not be lost.
View more of these war zone graffiti artworks below and over here.
[via Salon]