The Lyceum Public Art Work Bold Street Liverpool by The Sound Agents

Image Design THE SOUND AGENTS

Pic Sue_Hen

THE SOUND AGENTS were commissioned by The Liverpool BID Company to design an installation to dress The Lyceum building to commemorate The Great War for the Anniversary of The Battle of The Somme on the 1st July 2016. The Title of the installation is taken from the Wilfred Owen poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” 

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks Knock-Kneed,

coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep.

Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod.

All went lame; all blind” 

The installation depicts the 1914 - 1918 correspondence between Liverpool families and their loved ones. The image on the center panel is Arthur Lloyd Kings Regiment and Liverpool Pal. He died aged 20 years on the 30th July 1916 during the first assault of The Battle of Guillemont, one of the twelve Battles of the Somme.Arthur Lloyd as a central theme represents every man. The work is contextualised by supporting images and correspondence contributed by the people of Merseyside.                                       

    “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory

The old lie " Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori”  Wilfred Owen 

The words mean “It is sweet and right to die for your country” often quoted at the beginning of WW1.War poet Wilfred Owen lived in Tranmere, Wirral.