“Unknown” 😔

 Alison Kinnaird's installation 'Unknown', a glass army, is an artist’s response to the present state of conflict in so many parts of the world. Glass seems the ideal medium in which to comment on the fragility of human life in war; it is both dangerous and vulnerable, common-place yet precious, and has a purity and spiritual quality. 

The figures of the soldiers, each nearly half a metre tall, are ranged in regimented rows, but each one is differently engraved - a unique individual, although the first impression is that of a uniform army. They are not soldiers of any historical period - their clothing is based on modern army uniforms, but rendered in a somewhat abstract style so that they represent a universal soldier. Young men, each of them somebody's son, brother, husband or father are sent in our name, into dreadful situations.

The installation makes references to the Terracotta Army of the Chinese Emperors, who were intended to accompany him into the afterlife. The transparency of the glass emphasises the ghost-like feeling of the figures. The rows of flat figures also refer to fairground shooting galleries, as do the target designs engraved on some of the soldiers. Amongst the soldiers are a few figures of men, women and children, representing the 'collateral damage' - the civilians who are inevitably caught up in conflict.