The two minute silence

Depicts a group of people in the street observing two minutes silence in memory of fallen soldiers on Armistice Day. At the centre of the work, standing full frontal, is the eerie figure of death. His skeletal head stares directly at the viewer, providing a highly confronting reminder of the inescapable presence of death and the tragic loss of lives in the First World War.

Weaver Hawkins enlisted in the Queen's Westminster Rifles and served until the battle of the Somme in 1916. He was wounded and left for dead at Gommecourt but managed to survive and was sent back to England, where he was hospitalised. Hawkins wrote of his experience in Flanders during the First World War, "The whole place roaring with flames, a wonderful sight...gas...we were to be a sacrificial attack...the men with me were killed. I was left for dead...crawled back for two days." As evident in this chilling work, Hawkins was able to strongly identify with themes of sacrifice, death and loss in a highly personal manner.