Should any of y’all find yourselves near Doylestown, Penn., in the coming weeks, carve out a few hours to check out “From Swords to Ploughshares” at the James A. Michener Art Museum. The exhibit features 300 pieces of “trench art”—that is, baubles produced by 20th-century soldiers as they awaited their ghastly fates. Most of the gems come from World War I, and are cobbled out of empty shells, mustard-gas canisters, and whatever else the poor blokes could get their hands on. There’s something strangely heartening about these artworks—they’re a testament to mankind’s knack for creating pockets of sanity amidst the bloodiest chaos imaginable.
The Austro-Hungarian bullet sculpture atop this post comes from the collection of Gary Hollingsworth, the Orlando-based trench-art enthusiast who’s providing all the “From Swords to Ploughshares” goodies. More on his curious obsession here. Like so many great enterprises, it all started with a vacation in Budapest.
Tony Comstock // Apr 2, 2009 at 1:04 pm
My recollection is there is a sub-genre of trench art devoted to making musical instruments. I have in my mind’s eye a ukulele made from a shell casing or some such. I’ll see if I can find a link.
Brendan I. Koerner // Apr 2, 2009 at 2:11 pm
The dinner gong is close:
http://www.trenchart.org/DinnerGong.htm
Ell // Apr 3, 2009 at 6:22 am
You might enjoy the convict love tokens –
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=12096
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/convict_tokens/
Convict Love Tokens // Apr 3, 2009 at 11:02 am
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