From the Same Blue Planet

In this chapter I explore the subjective positions of the artists who have informed the analysis so far and present the complexity of their worldviews. I hope that they are represented beyond research participants or ‘Other’ but as individuals with fears and aspirations, as more than abstractions. I explore how artists navigate the cultural residues of past and recent conflicts and the persisting risks that echoed through the streets of Kabul. To define and shape identity in this context proves particularly felt and contentious, given that generations were born in war whilst their elders knew of a world without it. This chapter explores these generational tensions, but with layers of religious and ethnic identities that demand nuanced discussion. The binary between progress, as viewed from Kabul out into the world, and tradition, as the stories told to artists by older generations, is explored in this chapter.