In order to make this trilogy - Attack, Return, Ghost - Linda interviewed local men who had survived war. She then expressed her understanding of the personal cost of war to them, both during the fighting and on their return home, through the arpillera medium.
Attack shows the aftermath of an attack next to the barracks. Fighter jets fly overhead, plumes of smoke fill the sky and the soldiers lie injured or dead.
Ghost portrays fears, nightmares about, and flashbacks to the war, and suicidal behaviour - all elements of post traumatic stress disorder.
Return depicts the life of a soldier, back home from the war, living rough on the streets, seeking solace in alcohol, undoubtedly finding it difficult, if not impossible, to return to civilian life.
This trilogy of arpilleras, which depicts the horrors of the aftermath of war for ex-soldiers, has resonance in many post conflict zones today. As Linda states: “Although in these pieces I did focus on the story of the ex-servicemen who have come back and who are living rough in my area, they are meant to tell the story of the hopelessness faced by those coming home from any war. I have read many accounts of what it was like in other countries, as well as the stories told to me, and they always follow the same pattern.”
The text stitched at the bottom of the arpillera “Return” reminds us of the futility of war: “For the veterans and their loved ones, the war was only the start of the nightmare”.
For Linda, working on this trilogy confronted her with the human cost of war, and its decades-long layers of impact. In 2023, she completed a fourth piece Quietly Faded Into Tranquility
View animated image of the textile trilogy - click for larger image:
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