The poems of Wilfred Owen are now widely known and much quoted, so it is perhaps surprising that they were not on any syllabus when I was at school. Indeed, it was only by listening to the War Requiem as a young man that I first encountered his powerful poetry. So I feel a debt of gratitude to Benjamin Britten for choosing Owen's words to be the major voice of his masterpiece. Somewhat later in life -  ten years ago -  I constructed and painted a sarcophagus/altar in response to Owen's haunting poem 'The Parable of the Old Men and the Young'. This is a retelling of the ancient story of Abraham and Isaac which, for me, poses contemporary questions about the nature of sacrifice. I subsequently became increasingly curious to see what would happen if I took the remaining text of War Requiem -  including the Latin Missal -  and put it together in one place. Britten's approaching centenary was the final impetus I needed to get started. In the works shown here, I have explored Britten's juxtaposition of the nine poems expressing Owen's brutal experiences in the trenches alongside the centuries-old Latin of the 'Missa pro Defunctis': pity and anger engaging reverential and commemmorative language.
stephen raw








All images © Stephen Raw
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