Recent graduate Mikael Alacoque is gonna be taking the world by storm if he keeps on coming up with sculptures like these. There’s more inside, and do look out for his words on the meaning of the sculptures.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori by Mikael Alacoque

“As a sculptor I am fascinated by sacred objects and the rituals that surround them; especially the idea that some objects carry more meaning than others and have the power to change the way that we behave or the beliefs that we have.

‘Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori’ is the name of my piece. This translates as ‘It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country’, and was the slogan that was used by the British supporters of the First World War. Originally this was the slogan of the Greek war poet Homer. The sculpture itself is based on the design of the war memorial flagpole in Sheffield City Centre, my hometown.

Growing up in Sheffield, the flagpole was a key feature in my environment. It had an austere sense of importance that was re-enforced by the annual ritual of Remembrance Sunday. It was this sense of importance that gave me an interest in war memorials and inspired me to do more research into the subject.

In Britain, war memorials are the most common of all monumental sculptures. They can be found in every village, town and city and always occupy the most prominent locations.

Many of these memorials were designed, commissioned and paid for by the military. For me, it seems curious that the same people that sent hundreds of thousands of young men to their deaths erected monuments in their memory, stating ‘It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country’. The same memorials that were intended to act as tangible graves for these young men, also acted as a pro-war advert for the military. This to me seems inappropriate.

Monuments and war memorials tell a story. They give a version of events, but from only one perspective. It is worth remembering that despite the fact that a monumental sculpture may be steeped with authority and look important, its agenda and ideology may be questionable.

In my monument, the three wise monkeys represent the three bad pillars of society who supported the war: the Government, the senior officers who used out-dated battle tactics (that lead to many thousands more unnecessary deaths), and the Homer-quoting civilians (who were very often men over the maximum drafting age, or women who could not be drafted). The babies represent the young soldiers who were literally flung to their early deaths as cannon fodder.

You may find the monument garish and grotesque; however, it is not nearly as grotesque as the ideology of the many military war memorials that can be found in London and all over Britain today.”