Canteen (Feldflasche WW2) by Gerhard Petzl

Gerhard Petzl

Canteen (Feldflasche WW2), 2018

Mixed Media

34 x 14 x 7 cm (13.39 x 5.51 x 2.76 in)

My grandfather's canteen (water bottle) from WW2 was transformed into a new visual object and artwork.
The question for me was: How to I handle a historical relict and personal used item of my Austrian grandfather who died when I was 3 month old? I know from stories that he was sent to Russia, was imprisoned and fought his survival in cold Siberia. Made after years somehow his way back to Austria and could continue his work and life, as he did before. But somehow it really touches me emotionally to hold an object in my hands where I know that he used it on a daily basis to drink out of it and his attempt to survive another day. Now, over 70 years later it made its way to me and artistically transformed I want it to survive longer as an relict of WW2 history but also as an now transformed artistic sculpture, created by an relative who only knows the story behind through story-telling of my grandmother, Both have passed away already but the spirit and the history of such personal experiences and objects will remain, at least it is the case for me.

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