155mm Artillery Shell

Shell

155mm Artillery Shell

40 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, 2007

 

This artillery shell has a range of 25 kilometres. It is objects such as these that have killed the most on the 20th century battlefield. Fired from a howitzer by pressing a button. I was rather fascinated to discover that the shell case, the brass bit, is reused. And that the number of charges placed into it defines the range. These are colour coded cotton bags with the highest charge being red of course.

All text and images © Blaise Smith 2009