This was an unexpected bonus exhibition/installation, seen en-route to the London Nights exhibition (to be reviewed). ‘Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace’ is a travelling exhibition currently installed in St James’ Park, opposite Horseguards Parade, timely for the Armistice Day centenary.
This is an eight-year project by Irish photographer Michael St Maur Sheil, inspired by the words of a WW1 veteran, PJ Campbell.
No they would not be lonely, I saw that bare country before me…the miles and miles of torn earth … the litter, the dead trees. But the country would come back to life, the grass would grow again, the wild flowers return, and trees where now there were only splintered skeleton stumps.
They would lie still and at peace below the singing larks, beside the serenely flowing rivers. They could not feel lonely, they would have one another. And …though we were going home and leaving them behind. We belonged to them, and they would be a part of us for ever.
The main colour images are landscapes showing how the battlefields of the First World War look today. Many are shot at dawn (a grisly connection that has only occurred to me as I type these words) or in soft, romantic light illustrating Campbell’s point that the countryside will recover but the people and events exist only in memories (and in histories, as those with the memories die of old age). The main photos are accompanied by thematic explanatory texts and contemporary news photography.
Subject to changes in presentation, the exhibition or subsets of it has travelled internationally since 2014, with appearances in London (several times and venues), Paris, Belfast, Dublin, Liverpool, New York, Washington DC and Istanbul (these venues noted on the website; there may have been others). Its current location is appropriate, as the gathering point for today’s Armistice Day parade.
I spent some time, reading, viewing and considering this installation, as did several others who happened upon it while walking in the Park. It has become an important part of my own acts of remembrance this centenary year.
Identity and Place 