Warriors with Wrenches - Ozmo - 2012
🔹 Technique: Acrylic on PVC
🔹 Dimensions: 150 x 200 cm
🔹 Price: €12,250
🔹 Unique original work – Certificate of authenticity provided
Warriors with Wrenches is a powerful work that blends military iconography with elements of everyday life to offer a subtle reflection on war and its complex realities. Painted in acrylic on PVC, the monochromatic composition depicts a group of uniformed soldiers posing for a group photograph in the desert, surrounded by military containers. The phrase "Warriors with Wrenches" in the work's title suggests a duality between their role as combatants and manual laborers, perhaps mechanics or engineers, highlighting the versatility and humanity of these soldiers.
The group, though armed and dressed for combat, holds incongruous objects, such as wrenches and other tools, creating a contrast between war and the work of maintenance or repair. This contrast reminds the viewer that even in times of war, life continues with its mundane tasks and necessities, blurring the line between military and civilian. The expressions on the soldiers' faces range from camaraderie to exhaustion, adding a human dimension to a scene usually associated with power and violence.
In the background, a banner reading "We Proudly..." seems to emphasize military pride, but this is immediately nuanced by the banality and normality of the soldiers' attitudes. This setting, both realistic and surreal, raises questions about the nature of modern warfare and the multiple roles soldiers are called upon to play beyond direct combat. The realistic painting technique, with its careful attention to detail, reinforces the idea of a photograph frozen in time, but brings the scene back to life as a contemporary work of art.
Warriors with Wrenches is a meditation on the duality of war—both a time of destruction and survival, but also a time of construction and repair.
It encourages the viewer to reflect on the complex and often paradoxical realities of military life, and to look beyond warrior stereotypes to discover the shared humanity of those on the battlefield.
