Why are we here? - ice sculpture

With the drums of war beating YET again, I, like many people think the world has gone crazy. It is mad how the egos of these small minded men in power can threaten the lives of millions while they will be far removed from its consequences. But to be honest though these idiots aren't the ones I am most confused by. It is the soldiers that give up all morals and go to fight people they have never met and kill countless innocent people in the process. I just don't get it, maybe at one time in the passed being a soldier was an honorable profession, fighting the good fight that had to be fought but with the knowledge we all know now that the commanders and politicians are full of lies and the wars are for the profit of the rich how can these soldiers just follow orders unquestioningly and do their bidding. To me these are not honorable men and women, if they were they would be fighting the ones who sent them there or like I always tell my son 'Just walk away'.

Maybe they did join up out of some naive sense of patriotism but as they stand in a desert on the other side of the globe invading and attacking yet another country do they not stop for one moment and ask 'Why are we here?'. With this sculpture my team mate Alan Magee and myself wanted to pay homage to the soldiers who have. The really heroes of the battlefield.

Pipes of peace

Made in Jelgava, Latvia as part of an international competition this piece is very much based on a story which took place at Christmas time in 1914 during the First World War. German and English soldiers in the trenches made an unofficial truce and came together to share gifts, play games and sing carols. It was a moment of humanity, many were probably wondering who was this Archduke Franz Ferdinand anyway and why did a War start because of his assassination. (Sound familiar). It seems history may not exactly repeat itself but it does rhyme.

This truce was short lived, English Commanders felt they were losing control of their men so ordered them to recommence their shelling and told them to kill at least one Germany per day.

There were many other similar truces showing that these soldiers at least were sick of war and wanted it to end but, I very much doubt that in this day and age of bombs dropped in Iraq by some pimple faced teen sitting in a base on the other side of the world will ever allow for this humanity to show its face again.

Inspiration

Inspiration for a sculpture can come from many places and I really enjoy exploring different subjects in my work by not sticking to a certain theme. This piece was inspired by the tree which stood in the center of the area we were given for our work, We might have been forgiven for complaining that we had this big object in our way but for us it was a wonderful element to add to our piece. On this tree was a big crack which ran the length of the trunk and gave the plot a definite dividing line. This got us thinking about borders and different sides that we could contrast and so we decided on two sides at war.

The two soldiers reach across the battle line with a light for a cigarette. I imagined that their conversation would be about all the things that made them so similar and wondering why they were standing in this frozen wasteland being pitted against each other by some gobshites sleeping comfortably miles away.

Perspiration

Making it was fun because of the cold temperatures. It allowed us to quickly stick together the pieces like a Lego set. We pulled a few all nighters to get it finished on time but had lots of fun working in our trenches alongside the other competitors sharing coffee laced with Baileys and helping each other when needed.

Our sculpture in many ways was a simple message, easily understood by our audience and it was awarded first prize by the judges.

Let's hope the men and women in uniform will stop being sheep lead to the slaughter, history will not look kindly on them ' Just following orders'.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Globe - ice sculpture

Elephant slide - ice sculpture

Antarctic ocean - ice sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 56.652693 lat 23.724002 long Why are we here? - ice sculpture 2007 d3scr)