There were 158 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the war in Afghanistan, while many others suffered the horrors and psychological traumas of the hell of the battlefield. A trio of local artists has worked for several years to pay tribute to all of them in a new art exhibit featuring portraits of those 158 as well as focusing on an issue that has deeply affected the surviving members of the armed forces.
It’s an immense labour of love that is anticipated to be a work in progress for a few more years. It’s also designed to become a lasting legacy to those soldiers, honouring their sacrifice and their humanity as it travels from province to province in the hopes of finding a permanent home in a national gallery, while also being used as an educational tool.
“It’s important to us because the soldiers need to be recognized,” explained Cindy Revell, one of three artists. “It isn’t just about recognizing them. It’s trying to show the real person behind the uniform.”
Along with Susan Abma and St. Albert’s Shairl Honey, she devoted countless hours to tracking down family members of the fallen soldiers and preparing these portraits. The idea behind each portrait is akin to the reverse of the stoic photographs of these soldiers that are released to the media after they have died.
Abma, Honey and Revell have taken photographs of about half of those 158 men and women in uniform and artistically inserted lively, smiling and warmer faces that have been retrieved from their family albums.
“We want Canadians to connect with the soldiers in a personal way so that they aren’t just somebody that they’ve heard about in the news; so that they’re somebody that they can actually relate to and understand a little bit.”
Brief biographies of each person have also been prepared to give the viewer a deeper sense of who the soldier was. Other photos and videos are included as well as samples of their writings.
The artists are still working on portraits of the soldiers that aren’t yet in the exhibition. Each painting, they reported, takes an estimated 20 to 40 hours.
During the exhibit, a television screen will also play a video showing soldiers and what their lives were like while on active duty in Afghanistan.
At the same time, the exhibit also features some larger pastiche works that focus on the subject of PTSD. The cumulative result of all this material is a touching tribute and a stark reminder of the manifold and often hidden horrors of war.
The exhibit is set to open to the public on Monday with an official launch during an evening opening reception event starting at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 7. That is set to take place at the Prince of Wales Armoury Heritage Centre, located at 10440 108 Avenue in Edmonton.
It will remain on display until Jan. 2, 2015. After that, it will go on a 10-city tour across the country.
People can learn more at www.projectheroes.ca.
Details
This is a short preview of the portrait collection and the exhibition. Reporter Scott Hayes will be following up with a more in-depth look at the work and the people behind it in next Saturday's edition.
