Artwork Title: War Art Embroidery
Artist: Ebony Grosser
Artist Statement:
In this war art embroidery, I have explored the theme of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD and its affects on those involved in war. I have utilised symbolic elements, woven throughout the work to convey my message. The image itself is of a person who has served in a military force and has come back with PTSD. The lace detailing represents their memories of war. The traumatic and distressing memories are presented as cotton thread and the positive ones are synthetic, shiny threads. The synthetic threads can be seen as consumed by the cotton threads, symbolising that the only positive memories of war are drowned out by the negative ones. The image of a body laying down with the poppy bleeding, is the memory of someone close, a fallen comrade. The purposeful use and placement of the poppy was to represent the idea of remembrance, whilst the silhouette of the soldier represents the vast number of those at war, often categorised by a number. In the face area, the stitches are close together and a different colour, while the rest of the head’s stitches are messy and have loose threads. This shows that the person is keeping up appearances to the outside world, whilst starting to fall apart and come undone on the inside.
