War through the eyes of today’s teenagers has been captured in art form.
And the work of the young students has gone on show for a month in the Lost Generation exhibition at Batley Art Gallery.
Lost Generation is an Arts Council funded initiative by artist Andy Farr and Batley School of Art; aimed at making the WW1 centenary more relevant to today’s young people.
The paintings in the exhibition use archive photographs and other famous works of art in creative new ways with local artist Farr placing images of the students in the pictures so they take on the roles of those in the war.
He said: “For this project my goal has been to make current teenagers realise that this would have been them.
“Black and white images from the last century can be seen as irrelevant to today’s young people, but by putting them into those images enables them to connect with the lives and experiences of their peers from the past.”
One piece was inspired by an image of the Dewsbury Ordnance Depot in 1917. The original photo shows local women sorting through the uniforms sent back from the front to be recycled in the Yorkshire mills. In the new version of this image, the artist has replaced the original women with students from Batley School of Art, giving the image a contemporary edge.
A gallery spokesman said: “100 years ago the youth of Britain were caught up in the excitement of fighting for the honour and glory of their king and country. If you were a teenager in 1914 a third of your friends would have been dead four years later, those who did survive would have been physically injured and mentally scarred.
“The exhibition aims to make the WW1 centenary more relevant to today’s young people”.
Clare Grace, Batley school of Art course leader, said: “The project encouraged the students to engage with WW1 issues, while also enabling them to develop their skills and gain a valuable insight into how a professional painter works.”
The exhibition consists of a mix of painting and sculpture.
