Category: War and Loss

Within the Book Regeneration by Pat Barker, Rivers describes what it is like to be in the trenches during World War I;

 

“Groping along the tunnel in the gloom

He winked his tiny torch with whitening glare,

And bumped his helmet, sniffing the hateful air.

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,

And once, the foul, hunched mattress from a bed;

And he exploring, fifty feet below

The rosy dusk of battle overhead” ((Barker, P. (1991). Regeneration. New York, Plume))

As a form of escapism, many of the Lincolnshire soldiers created Trench Art work. I think the important thing to remember when considering the art is the wide spectrum of media it represents and the vast range of values and emotions it embodies. Trench art is not just the engraved shell cases which is what the majority consider it to be, but it is the full range of mementos that soldiers/servicemen/ locals, refugees or prisoners of war made as a memory of their experience. Trench art could also be considered as a keep sake for loved ones and often made from the materials easily to hand, sometimes the weapons of war, sometimes the rocks and wood they had for walking on – using their craft skills.  It is at that point that we consider it was for their loved ones and families or to make a living as refugees, injured soldiers or to express their frustration with the war and the emotions that went with it. The pieces are a value far exceeding that of the materials involved – that the true and often hidden value or significance of the pieces can be found, sadly it is this value that is most easily lost or that has failed to survive.

Trench Art can cover varied materials and pieces including cover sketches, paintings, religious items such as crosses made from bullets, bayonets and many other pieces of discarded military equipment. From manmade materials to carvings in stone, chalk, wood and bone, embroidery and engravings as well as shell cases and regimental buttons and even ink wells and candle stands.

If we take the carved piece of chalk which is on display in the gallery in the archives, it could be described as a form of scrimshaw or simple naive carving, however, in this case you have to ask, where did that individual sit when carving it?  How many hours did he spend with his pen knife? Did he do it to calm his nerves sat in a cold wet shell hole or muddy trench under enemy shell fire?  Was it done to calm pre attack nerves before going over the top – did he return?  Who was it made for and what did it represent for them, what value did it have?  For a mother and father, a sweet heart or a wife, a younger brother an injured friend or just something to decorate a locker in a barrack room or just something to waste a few hours before going on stag? So many questions and very few answers but it could have been for all or none of these, what memories did it hold for the maker or recipient in later life – what doors did it open for them or what comfort did it provide.  How many weeks did he spend carrying this rock around before finishing it , how many trenches or tunnels did it see?

“Examples of Lincolnshire Trench Artwork” ((Lincstothepast.com (1900) Search results | Lincs to the Past. [online] Available at: http://www.lincstothepast.com/SearchResults.aspx?cmd=type&val=img [Accessed: 10 May 2013))

You can apply these discussions and arguments to almost any trench art object.  At another level it is opportunistic recycling, people taking an alternative spin on the objects they have, ingenuity and invention and the artist or engineer or craftsman seeing another use for an object.  The steel helmet turned upside down and used as a hanging basket for flowers, the mess tins turned upside down and joined together to make a child’s toy train or items made to maim and kill being mounted to form a cross or table decoration.  Weapons of war converted into a simple peacetime use.

Some trench art was commercially made as well, especially embroidered cards and a huge variety of very professionally mass made cards exist – in this it is the written messages on the back that add substance and significance.  Likewise certain shell case designs still remain and it was something that many injured servicemen did, selling to other servicemen, to make money to survive.

In essence every piece of trench art has its own story, it is individual, has its own poignancy, its own value to the people that made it, gave or received it, treasured or cared for it.  Some of it was anti-war, some of it very much celebrates the victories, and all of it is deeply rooted in the raw emotion of the time in which it was made. Taking this on board, for my piece, I have been given artwork and a poem by www.lincstopast.com The artwork is by general Lincolnshire Soldiers but the poem is By Private Charles Tear, 138th Brigade, M.G.C. Within the poem he discusses men from Lincolnshire including William Rainsforth, the 1st man 2nd row from the back – to the left in the Machine Gun Section of the 5th Lincolnshire Foreign Service Territorial Regiment – 13th October 1915 – before the battle to take Hohenzollern Redoubt. Here is a snippet of the poem;

Boys of the Old Brigade

The boys I’m going to write about,

Though not up to perfection,

I’m simply paying a tribute

To the veterans of our section. ((Online:http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/lincolnshireregiment.php#sthash.6b6rL9Os.dpuf, accessed 4^{th March} 2013 ))

Marc Augé defines the concept of a place in a setting of the supermodernity. The latter of the reading proposes a definition of place as the contrast of space, he describes space as a “frequented place” ((Marc Augé (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, trans. John Howe, London: Versop. p.79)). Consequently, place can be seen as an empty geographical landmark which is yet to be filled with life ((Marc Augé (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, trans. John Howe, London: Versop. 81)). In essence he is talking about transitional places, for example airports, motorways etc, the places that are part of the architecture of modern life and capitalism. Fundamentally they seem without identity and purpose built to cause a friction-less society, a society that no longer creates a united identity. Another aspect of non-places is a sense of sleep walking or amnesia, journeying through everyday life with a resistance to remembering the mundane journeys that occur every day.

Marc Augé also highlights that we spend much of our time in ‘non places’, to me it highlights an illusion of being part of a much grander scheme, than the current lives we may be leading. ‘These days, surely, it was in these crowded places where thousands of individual itinerary converged for a moment, unaware of one another, that there, survived something of the uncertain charms of the wastelands’ ((Marc Augé (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, trans. John Howe, London: Verso, p. 81 )) This can be considered to be an analysis of modern life, highlighting a glimpse at a Utopian city, a city where people remember the mundane and turn it into something that confronts the expectation of what reality is. This theory links to that of Lyotard and his explanation of the postmodern in relation to Avant Garde theatre, this theatre was set out to change the rules of art by testing the limits of representation and style. In conclusion much like site specific work it confronts the public’s expectations about what art should be.

Taking these notions on board, for the task of placing cards around Lincoln, I chose places that people pass on their mundane journeys. I wanted to make people remember their routes because of where I had placed my cards. In essence I wanted to make places more interesting and turn places into areas where you can form an identity.

The first place I chose to place my card was outside ‘The Shakespeare pub’. I decided to place it here in order to cause a reaction from the regular ‘punters’. I wanted to evoke a sense of awareness to the beauty of the building without focussing solely on the alcohol within the space.

 

After reading the second card I decided to concentrate on the beauty of the words, I wanted the words to stand out on a piece of artwork. Following the ideologies of Lyotard, I found beauty in the mundane, placing my card on a billboard. I felt that this highlighted the words and reflected the beauty.

The third card reading ‘All these people are anonymous extras. I wouldn’t hold out much hope for them’ was my favourite. After reading this card, it made me think of many places I could put it, the first being a Pedestrian sign post, implying the very literal. However, the place I decided to leave my card was on a memorial statue, there are many reasoning’s behind this, the first being after passing it every day the card made me pay attention to the beauty and care put into the statue. The second being that it is an unexpected shock for passers-by to witness beauty that has been ‘vandalised’ with words of beauty.

 

After completing this task, i feel that this is something i want to take on board when creating my site specific piece, one of the beauriful places within Lincoln is the Grandstand

After reading Mike Pearson’s ‘Why Performance’ and visiting the Grandstand on a drift, I decided to research further into how a ‘performance can illuminate the historically and culturally diverse ways in which a particular landscape has been made, used, reused and interpreted; and help make sense of the multiplicity of meanings that resonate from it’ ((Pearson, M (2011) Why Performance)) Bearing this quote in mind, I decided to research further into the Grandstand as it occurred to me that after living in Lincoln for nearly two years and passing the grandstand when travelling in and out of Lincoln I had no idea of its uses, past or present. As expected Lincoln racecourse is a former horse racing venue, had my detective hat on to work that one out! It was the original location of the Lincoln handicap which I found out to be a flat handicap horse race opened to thoroughbred horses aged four years or older. The racecourse was established by the Lincoln Corporation on West Common in 1773.

The Grandstand is now a grade II listed building, during the time when the Grandstand was used as a race course the A57 still passed between the course and the grandstand, this led to the road being closed during race meetings, allowing the BBC cameras to follow the racers. This idea of closing the road to allow the race meets to happen linked with the Reading Weeks reading and in particular Making Journeys in Live Art. The Study Room guide is concerned with the value of journeys as an emerging form in Live Art, this theory made me question the idea of attempting to create a site specific performance around the historical elements of the grandstand. With a strong focus in particular on the destruction and yet beauty that could be created by closing down the A57 and trying to recapture the historical values that Lincoln had to offer. How would the local Lincoln population react? Would it create Nostalgia in the older generation? Or is this an idea that needs leaving to the professionals? Either way as stated by Mike Pearson ‘Public performances can enhance public appreciation and understanding of places and describe the process of landscape formation’ ((Pearson, M (2011) Why Performance)) This is something that I very much hope is the case with the majestic grandstand that should be a part of Lincoln’s future as well as Lincoln’s past.

Because of this I want to create a piece which confronts the audiences expectations of art and engages a topic which isn’t considered a focal point in today’s society.  I want to illuminate the beauty within the site whilst referring to the ugliness of the past, creating a juxtaposition for the audience to contend with.  However throughout the performance i want to create a united identity, bringing audience member and performer into one space creating an installation piece.