Art

Tamina stoked to be on a horse for the first time.

For the last month the Skateistan design team has joined the Skateistan team in Kabul to professionally document our activities and teach special classes with staff and students. Skateistan’s designers, Alexandra Bald and Ana Lessing, are members of the Berlin–based art and design collective C-D-A-P and designed the recently-released Skateistan Book.

Over their month-long visit to Kabul, they ran a series of classes introducing art and design skills to Skateistan students. One of their most popular classes was an advanced photography class with staff and youth volunteers which was based around a German fairytale adapted to Afghan culture.

The culmination of this photo class was an action-packed, half-day photo outing with 21 youth and staff from Skateistan. Below, Alex and Ana explain more about the project and what it was like shooting a fantasy photo series within three hectic hours, one recent morning in Kabul.

Among the traditional Afghan arts, wood carving has its own place. The students at Skateistan believe that a nation stays alive if their culture is alive. Therefore, in this semester the students worked on wood carving as a way of sustaining some of their Afghan culture. The technique used was to draw a design on plywood and then cut it out with a special saw. The design which has been cut out is then glued onto another piece of plywood and coloured to add more detail.

Their carvings include Afghan famous figures such as Ahmad Shah Durani, the first Emir of Afghanistan, skateboarding, landscapes, and birds.

For the past month in classroom lessons Skateistan students have been working on creating a variety of interesting sculptures. The coolest part about these sculptures is that they are all made completely from recycled trash. The theme of this semester was “Discovering yourself and your environment.” Throughout the semester students have been learning about the water cycle, recycling, pollution and other environmental issues. This project allowed students to combine the concept of environmental awareness with the creative arts.

Murza & The Chicken from Skateistan on Vimeo.

Question: What do you get when you take a chicken, Murza, and a crew of Skateistan students around the skatepark?  Answer: A hilarious film written, directed, and edited by our amazing students, that's what!  This semester, the Wednesday AM Film class produced this hilarious short called MURZA AND THE CHICKEN and we're so excited to share it! During a jam-packed twelve weeks, the class worked as a team, learning tons, and accomplishing their goal.   We gave the students the tools, let them loose around the skatepark and told them they could tell any story they wanted. Murza and the Chicken is the result of their excitement and hard work, and we're very proud of them.