Wrenches, Trenches, and Stenches

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd August, 11am-4pm
Ladywell Chapel, Ladywell Cemetery, Ladywell Road

This public art exhibition commemorates the start of the First World War. Women war artists were commissioned in the First World War, but had few opportunities to venture beyond
the domestic, social, and industrial operations on the home front.

This public art exhibition has commissioned seven women artists to give their unique perspective on the First World War from life on the front line, as well as on the home front. Each artist has produced 3 artworks: commemorating the start of the war in 1914; the middle of the war in 1916; and the end of the war on Armistice Day in 1918.

- Nicky Scott-Francis looks at the landscape of war based on research at the Imperial War Museum - particularly the fear of a gas attack.
- Jolanta Jagiello based on research from the Musei della Grande Guerra Open Air Museum in South Tyrol examines how deliberately setting off avalanches saw thousands of soldiers serving in the Alpine Front killed.
- Elisabeta Chojak-Mysko’s artworks focus on the heat of battle so that we should not forget.
- Sara Scott tells the personal story of her grandfather’s munitions factory and its contribution to the war effort.
- Louise Kosinska traces the love story between her grandfather in Belgium and her grandmother serving as Red Cross Nurse.
- Monica Wheeler highlights how families were divided by the war, serving on all sides.
- Jill Rock concentrates on her German family roots, interned in Britain for their own safety.