Making Soldiers: Over the Top c. 1917

Curator: Here we have Eric Kennington’s “Making Soldiers: Over the Top,” a stark image held within the Tate Collections. Editor: It’s powerful. The heavy blacks and whites convey a sense of dread, like witnessing a desperate, chaotic surge. Curator: Indeed. Kennington, who also served in the war, captures the brutal reality of trench warfare, presenting soldiers emerging from the trenches and entering no-man’s land. It is a moment of forced masculine performance. Editor: And the symbolic weight of those rifles, almost like thorny growths, reflects the dehumanizing nature of conflict. They become extensions of the soldiers themselves. Curator: It’s as if they are shackled to it, unable to escape the violence. This work demands that we reassess narratives of heroism often associated with war. Editor: It leaves one with a heavy heart, acknowledging the countless lives irrevocably altered.