Endure

Highly commended

2026
unglazed buff raku clay
46 x 29 x 22 cm, 11 kg

Endure.

Resilience means different things to different people. The very concept of resilience is central to what a soldier must be. A soldier is resilient; he endures.  

Resilience, though, is often challenged and tested by what no one would expect. It is not the mile you have already walked that breaks you, it is the mere metre you need to move after you had thought yourself finished. 

This man, this soldier, could have been any one of us. His face is lined and his shoulders slouched with his back bent to the weight of his webbing. Has his smile become a smirk, has it grown more sly, or is his lip set to a grimace? The soldier endures, though how he does it is unique to him. It is for the observer to decide what they find evoked when they look upon this work. 

We have each been here: tired, frustrated, so close to breaking it is now a joke we tell. 

I hope that in this portrayal of a soldier we each see something to broaden the understanding that we hold of what resilience is to each of us.