NOW & THEN
Antique meets Contemporary

'War Kills’ medal by Susanne Matsche in silver

Susanne Matsche

I think it is quite evident that this is a cigarette box.

In Europe (and I think in the States as well) these letters of warning are getting bigger and bigger. They are saying things that are quite evident and in a way everybody knows. Like: smoking kills. And people still do smoke and hundreds of thousands around the world die from the consequences.

With war it is the same in a way. The simplicity of this idea struck me and I hope I can bring it across in this piece. Everyone knows that war kills people and so much more, and still people do it, and start wars.

The cigarette box is empty because the cigarettes have already been smoked; war has already been started (and is going on, in so many places…)

The size and the dimensions also remind me of a gravestone. So it is also thought as a small monument for all the lives and dreams and hopes that have been destroyed through war.

We (or most of us who see or contribute to this show) can consider ourselves lucky to live in places where there is no war right now.