Ottawa residents who visit the Canadian War Museum this summer will learn there’s more to camouflage than shades of green.
On June 4, the national museum located at Centretown’s LeBreton Flats will be collaborating with the Imperial War Museum in London to launch an exhibit about the symbolism and history of camouflage, a deception tactic used in war for centuries.
The display will trace the development of military concealment over the last century, using artifacts from soldiers’ uniforms to camouflage-inspired pop art.
The exhibition will show more than 150 artifacts from about 25 national and international institutions and private collections.
Art and design are major themes in the exhibit, which will display work by artists such as Andy Warhol and the Group of Seven.
Pierre Leduc, media relations officer at the museum, says the main goal of the exhibit is to educate people about the development of the art, which is something he says most tend to overlook.
“I think people will be intrigued to learn how a traditional tool available to military strategists suddenly became part of clothes you can find in almost any store.”
Leduc says the exhibit is special because it diverts from the usual re-telling of Canadian history.
“It’s the first time we’re doing an exhibit on the discipline within the military field as opposed to specific battles.”
The idea was borrowed from the Imperial War Museum, whose camouflage exhibit has been on since last year.
The most intriguing aspect, Leduc says, was the final section of the London exhibition, which shows the stream of camouflage into pop culture.
“We are interested to know how it affected the home front,” Leduc says. “It is important to show that Canadian military history is not just the story of boys, men and women flying overseas, but how these people developed socially at home.”
Some of these key pieces will include works dating back to 1960s’ anti-war protests and the 1970s’ punk rock era, and pieces found on high-fashion catwalks and store shelves today.
Artifacts include a jacket worn by Joe Strummer of the punk-era band The Clash, and a camouflage dress designed by Adejoké Taiwo, who won this year’s Project Runway Canada.
Robert Butt, communications officer for the Royal Canadian Legion in Ottawa, says he thinks the exhibit captures an important part of history.
“Camouflage is just one aspect,” says Butt. “It is important that people know how we connect all these artifacts to understand not only why we went to war, but what we went to war with.”
Butt says the exhibit offers another way of connecting people with their ancestors.
It will run until next Jan. 3.
“We hope this will intrigue people and they will eventually want to find out more about history,” says Leduc.