JF PODEVIN Fine Art

Paul Frohly's Hat

 

On the afternoon of February 23rd 1916, in the forest of Pareid during the attack of a German outpost near Beausejour, in France, my grand-father Paul Frohly was hit by a bullet. In its path the bullet kicked off a small brass button of aeration (the circle shaped tear,) and exited through the back of the hat. It lacerated the side of his scalp and skull, ( the left parietal bone,) but the wound was not fatal.

All events no matter how seemingly insignificant, affect us through causality, and this “Butterfly Effect” changes the course of all lives. l chose this event, because of its obvious dramatic aspect, its exact recording in history, and its direct relationship to my life. 

 

A heartbeat on the part of Paul Frohly, or the blink of an eye on the part of the German soldier, a millimeter in space or a nanosecond in time, could have made it so that "you” wouldn't be reading these words. In essence this moment in time affects the life of all that come into contact with this display.

Between the path of this bullet which missed my grandfather and the instant that you are reading this text, spans the relative spectrum of what I gleaned, of the immensity of life, through the prism of my existence.