This November marked 100 years since the Great War (World War I) ended, and an art installation by Rob Heard was brought to the Olympic Park for two weeks. The art installation features 72,396 shrouded figures laid out in rows, covering 400 square meters of grass land next to the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture. Each shrouded figure represents a British person who was killed at the Battle of the Somme. Most of these have no known grave in the battlefield because they were never recovered. The shrouds have all been hand-stitched so that they appear as though they are sleeping. Some visitors have put poppies and painted rocks on or near the figures. The installation hopes to bring about some individuality to each and every Briton who perished at this battle.
The list of names is from the Thiepval Memorial in France. These names were read out in the upper part of the installation; the area was so vast that you could not hear the names read out (and on speaker) at the other end of the installation. According to an article by the BBC, around 700,000 Britons died during World War I, so image how much ground that would cover if each one was laid out (1).
The Battle of the Somme took place in July of 1916 when the British soldiers stormed out of the trenches to attack the German forces in France. The battle actually lasted for 141 days with massive casualities on both sides. Because of the nature of the battle and the battle making the bodies unretrievable, the soldiers who fell were never identified and left to remain buried in the mud and trenches. To equally commemorate all of these soldiers, the War Graves Commission built the Thiepval Memorial. This was built in France above the battlefields and lists all names, role, and where they were from.
The art installation is moving and really brings to light the scale of the Battle of the Somme by putting it into a unique perspective. The artist made up to 200 of these shrouds a day and started the task in 2017.
Four years ago, several different art installations and events took place throughout the country to mark the 100 years since the start of World War I; the most popular of these turned out to be Tower of London Poppies (also covered here: Tower of London Poppies Commemorate The Great War and #LightsOut). This year, to mark the end of World War I, we have had fewer events. The artist who brought the popular poppies installation to The Tower of London has returned with The Tower Remembers @ The Tower of London (Beyond the Deepening Shadow) as one of the key events, which was only on for a week. Both art installations are equally moving in their own ways.
Visitors to the "Shrouds of the Somme" art installation could also purchase a shroud. The shroud was either given a soldier's name who fought in the battle or can be ordered to include a random name from the battle. (This was similar to the poppies where the public could purchase one of the poppies that made up the display in the Tower of London.)
In addition to these two events, the wave of poppies toured the country for the past four years to give others who could not make it to the Tower of London the chance to see them. They became one of London's most popular art installations in more recent years. The wave of poppies ends this month with the final installation climbing up the Imperial War Museum in south London. (Photographs will follow of this in due course.)
The "Shroud of the Somme" was available to view in the Olympic Park from the 8th to the 18th of November.
1) Viewpoint: Ten Big Myths about World War I. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25776836 [24 February, 2014].
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