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Decorum Est
Ewers, Sara - Enlarge image
Decorum Est; Decorum Est
- Object:
Medal and container
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
Loughborough, England (made) - Date:
1996 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Ewers, Sara (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Bronze with gold leaf and a Hessian 'sandbag'
- Credit Line:
Given by the artist
- Museum number:
A.7:1, 2-1999
- Gallery location:
Sculpture, room 111, case DR16
The medal, its title and container evoke the subject of war. This side shows human suffering, the true face of war, while the Hessian ‘sandbag’ and ‘barbed wire’ spikes symbolise trench warfare. The title is a contraction of ‘Dulce et decorum est’, which itself is the title of the most bitter poem by the First World War poet Wilfred Owen. It comes from the longer Latin phrase meaning ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’. The words printed on metal snippets under the Hessian are also by Owen.
The medal is one of a series of five medals on which Sara Ewers has been working in recent years entitled 'War and Peace'.
