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Harrowing Photojournalism Inspires a Tragic Greek Sculpture

Politically charged sculpture 'The Dying Gaul' bridges Ancient Greece to today's riots in Belfast.
Felled, 2014, Penny Byrne. Image courtesy the artist

A soldier lay dying amongst the 100-plus stalls at Art16. Completed in a black satin patina finish, the nameless, faceless guard is dressed in typical riot gear—breathing through a gas mask and leaning close to a rifle, dropped to his side. For a young child nearby, the sculpture Felled resembles a Star Wars Stormtrooper, but the Australian artist and creator of the work, Penny Byrne, sees the ancient Hellenistic portrayal of The Dying Gaul.

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Completed in 2014, Felled is Byrne’s second large-scale bronze work done in collaboration with Urban Art Projects, an Australian company that often commissions public art and limited edition pieces like Byrne’s. Coming from a ceramics conservation and heritage background, as well as a fine arts education, Byrne’s work embraces the political by bringing both humor and awareness to some of today’s most horrific issues.

While she was in London for the global art fair, Byrne caught up with The Creators Project to reveal the story behind Felled and its uncanny resemblance to one of history’s most beloved sculptures.

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The Creators Project: Hi Penny. Welcome to London! This is certainly an engaging piece of work. How did it come about?

Penny Byrne: I saw this picture in the paper of the Belfast riots in 2013, where a riot policeman had been hit in the head with a brick. He was literally sitting in the same position as The Dying Gaul. For a start, I couldn’t believe that within our modern times we’re getting images that hark back two or three thousand years all the way to Greek imagery. I’m noticing that more and more in press photography.

That’s almost beautiful.

Yeah. Horrific but beautiful. It’s really violent. This is a riot police who’s been really injured but it’s so much like this Ancient Greek sculpture.

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What’s the significance of The Dying Gaul?

The Greeks fought and beat the Gauls but since they were worthy adversaries, the Greeks wanted to show the Gauls as heroic in defeat. They chose to do that in sculpture. This sculpture is saying, "we beat them, but we think that they were heroes," and there’s this feeling of empathy and pathos for the injured Gaul. So for me, seeing the riot police in the same position really got me interested.

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You’ve worked with themes of protest before.

Yes, starting really from the Arab Spring. For about 12 months I tracked all the protests that were happening in the world, which were almost weekly from 2011–2012. There were protests going on everywhere from Nigeria, Russia, Occupy Wall Street, Ukraine, Egypt, on and on. I made a big artwork about that called iProtest, which had 300 figurines attached to a wall with their faces painted in national flags for all the different protest countries.

What was different this time?

Up until now I’d been looking at public protests against governments and regimes. Here, the riot police are the ones stopping the protests by locking people up and using water cannons and batons. They’re always anonymous and in rows.

You don’t really think of them as humans.

Right. You don’t really think of them as people. They’re doing the bidding of the government. So when you see an image of riot police on the ground like that, they’re suddenly vulnerable. You realize there’s a person under there. Someone who has a mom, or maybe a family. This kind of humanity comes into it, which is really quite interesting.

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Felled (rear view), 2014, Penny Byrne. Photograph courtesy Mathew Stanton

Do you think this piece can only be read that way?

Well, from my work with the Arab Spring I felt resentful of riot police and resentful of the use of authority to oppress people. But as these things have happened, you could equally say that these people are our protectors. So I was expecting two different responses to the work. So far, no one has said that they’re happy to see this fallen officer. People say they are moved by it.

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It is quite moving, especially since it is the exact same size as The Dying Gaul.

But riot police instead. I did some research and found that the Edinburgh School of Art has a cast collection of ancient Greek sculptures, like the actual casts from the real artworks. I approached them and asked if I could come and study their cast of The Dying Gaul. They were thrilled. I took heaps of photographs. Looked at him. Sat with him. Measured him. Really soaked him in. It was fabulous to get that one on one with the actual 3D work.

You’ve made three editions and this one on display at Art16 is your artist proof. Will it be weird to sell your last one?

I’d like to be able to keep it in the UK and show it somewhere else. For me, the more people that can see it the better. I’m not sure that this piece offers any solutions but it does try to get people to look at each other like humans. If this work can just spark those thoughts and conversations, that’s a great thing for me.

You should find the person from the picture. That would be interesting.

How would they feel seeing himself immortalized as an ancient Greek warrior? Who knows.

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Artist Penny Byrne with The Dying Gaul. Photograph courtesy Jeremy Dillon

Next, Byrne turns to photographs from the November 2015 Paris shootings, linking the trauma with an El Greco pieta. See more of her work here.

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