All That Remains

All That Remains is a mixed-media assemblage reflecting on the futility of war and the immeasurable cost on human life. At its centre sits a ceramic female figure, motionless and grief-stricken, perched on a rough log of wood. I have tried to suggest through her posture loss, desolation, and devastation. Beside her rest three small white bundles—small bodies wrapped inburial shrouds. Children lost before their lives could fully begin. These fragile shapes stand in for the countless young lives cut short in today’s ongoing conflicts, reduced to statistics yet borne by real bodies and real grief. The contrast between the permanence of ceramic, the rawness of wood, and the softness implied by the wrapped forms emphasizes the tension between endurance and loss. The work speaks not of heroism or victory, but of what remains after violence has passed: mourning, absence, and the silent weight carried by those left behind. This piece is a meditation on maternal grief, collective loss, and the recurring cycles of war that continue to claim lives too early, leaving behind only remnants and memory.