Olivia Dai ’26, Arts & Entertainment Section Editor

A brass World War II letter opener (Courtesy of JunkInTheBoxOhio)

I first stumbled across trench art in an unexpected place: the hair salon. I was chatting with my barber when she suddenly showed me a peculiar object. Peering closer, I saw that it was a letter opener made out of a bullet and a metal blade. The metal, in the shape of a thin leaf, intersected with the tip of the bullet. My barber told me that this was trench art — art that was made in the trenches of the World Wars. This piece of art highly piqued my interest and raised many questions: how were these soldiers able to melt and create these pieces of art? And why has nobody heard of the art form?

To answer these questions, I turned to the internet for answers. Dating from the World Wars to the wars in Vietnam, trench art is commonly defined as art made by civilians and soldiers and connected to a specific conflict. It often consists of metal bullet and shell casings fashioned and soldered together to form sculptures. For example, tank cases have been turned into vases and bullet casings have turned into mini tanks. Often, military engineers made these sculptures using their toolkits. According to a lecture by curator Tom Czekanski, toolkits are “perfect for great varieties of trench art,” since they contain gas burners to solder brass bullets together, hack saws for shortening shells, and even files for smoothing down surfaces. 

However, despite the fascinating progress and history of trench art, it has largely remained unknown to most people. When I have asked my close friends if they knew about it, most responded that they didn’t. It makes sense, though, as I myself wasn’t aware of it until I saw a real piece of trench art. Mr. Torson, an arts teacher at NA, did know about trench art! However, he did acknowledge the relative obscurity of trench art, saying that “this truly is a niche in the folk art world.” As Mr. Torson notes, “[trench art] is a healing condition in all of us; we can be machines that can kill people or little kids that can whittle things.”

Trench art is not only a form of art, but a form of storytelling. It recounts the harrowing experiences and near-death encounters of soldiers who were in the wars. They could be used for patriotic jewelry or provide a memory to honor an event. Additionally, they also offer a glimpse into the soldiers’ lives. Minerva Magazine found that French soldiers were using artillery shells to carefully create wedding bands for fiancés and used rifle cartridges to create pen caps for children in the battleground of Verdun in 1916.

These depictions of experiences and stories are not solely confined to the past. Similar to the trench art created in the past, people are still making wartime art to inspire hope and preserve stories in modern conflicts. For example, Natalia Shulga’s digital artwork, “U is for Ukraine” depicts white doves flying within a cloud of red smoke. The doves, symbolizing peace and hope, are juxtaposed with the red, which symbolizes war and destruction. The piece captures her emotions during the war in Ukraine. 

These pieces both serve as a reminder of the destruction wrought by war, and also the creativity and aspirations that come out of it. Ultimately, trench art and war art should be remembered for their history and the context in which they have been created. Their beauty is undeniable and their messages are striking; they are little reminders of history that is not to be overlooked.