Battlefield letters inspire interactive Anzac show

Artist David Guerin will read from old war letters at Hastings City Art Gallery this Saturday. He encourages the audience to respond with a drawing which is to be attached to a temporary cenotaph as part of his PhD project. Photo / Paul Taylor

Letters written from famous World War 1 battles come to life through artist David Guerin.

The Havelock North man spent much of the past year consumed by the wartime experiences of Alfred Owen Wilkinson who fought in Gallipoli, Passchendaele and during the Battle of the Somme.

Wilkinson's letters were transcribed into a series of three books which inspired the artist's PhD in sculpture.

"It's a contemporary art project but it's dictated by those books. It has material cultural considerations, it's an academic subject but it combines the materiality of his life as defined by the clothes he wore etc," Mr Guerin said.

In five interactive performances at Hastings City Art Gallery on Anzac Day Saturday, April 25, Mr Guerin will read aloud a few of the letters that Private (and later Captain) Wilkinson sent home from the war, supported by a collection of photos and war memorabilia.

The audience is invited to make a drawing of their response and leave it attached to a temporary cardboard cenotaph, based loosely on the memorial in Queen's Square.

Drawings are to be completed individually or in a group and will combine to create a "collective" memory of a historic event.

Wilkinson was an accountant in his 20s when he joined the army as a private in the New Zealand artillery. By the end of the war he was in charge of 60 men, 120 horses and attached to the quartermaster's corps.

"He survived Gallipoli and France without a scratch - a remarkably resilient man," Mr Guerin said. "His letters show how he felt his faith in God and the love and support of his family brought him home safely."